The aim of the study was to compare parents' and nurses' perceptions of parents' needs in the neonatal intensive care unit.
Material and methods: The study was conducted in the Kaunas Perinatal Center, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Hospital of Kaunas University of Medicine. The sample consisted of 181 parents and 37 nurses. The NICU Family Needs Inventory was used for data collection. The instrument included the following five dimensions (subscales) of needs: proximity, information, assurance, support, and comfort. Reliability of the scale was identified as 0.94 using Cronbach's alpha.
Results: The parents' needs perceived by both the groups were compared within the subscales. Using the Mann-Whitney rank test, the significant differences between the parents' and nurses' assessments of individual statements were identified. The majority of statistically significant differences between parents and nurses have been found assessing the proximity (75.0%) and informational (72.7%) needs related to the possibility for parents to be close to their newborns and to receive timely and adequate information about their newborns' health condition. Parents, if compared to nurses, rated these needs as more important. The assessment of support needs showed the lowest number of differences (38.9%). There was a statistically significant difference assessing the support in decision-making related to the newborn care, which was identified by parents as being more important. Nurses perceived the needs related to parent-to-parent support and possibility to share feelings as being more important.
Conclusion: The comparison of parents' and nurses' perceptions of parents' needs in the neonatal intensive care unit showed that there are statistically significant differences in the assessment of individual statements within all five subscales.