Person- and family-centred care in neonatology: a scoping review to identify existing definitions, models of care, and related categories of interventions

Abstract

Background: Person- and family-centred care in the field of neonatology (N&FCC) are promoted by many international agencies and scientific societies because of evidence-based benefits for infants, parents and health systems; however, being very broad and evolving concepts, they have not been uniformly defined in operational terms. We conducted a scoping review of literature relevant to N&FCC with the objectives of synthetising: 1) existing definitions; 2) models of care; 3) categories of interventions suggested by each model of care.

Methods: We searched PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science, and Google Scholar for articles and/or grey literature published until 5 February 2024. For each objective, we considered articles and/or other documents, for any type of newborn.

Results: The searches yielded 10 771 records. A total of 91 documents were deemed eligible for inclusion. We identified 40 relevant definitions and 28 different models of care of N&FCC. Both definitions and models of care were categorised in four macro-groups, based on their main focus: newborn and developmental care, parental participation to care, no separation between mother-baby, and miscellanea. Out of the 28 models of care, a total of 51 categories of interventions were identified, with a variable number (range 2-17) reported per each model. These were grouped in five macro-categories: individualised neonatal health care; organisation of care, human resources and policies; physical resources; health professionals (HPs) capacity strengthening and support; family empowerment and support. While most models included individualised neonatal care and family empowerment interventions, HPs were frequently neglected as beneficiaries of the intervention: only 11 models incorporated HPs capacity strengthening, only three proposed a wider support for HPs.

Conclusions: We identified and synthetised numerous definitions, models, and categories of interventions, highlighting the need for further conceptualisation and standardisation around the concept of N&FCC, including the perspective from low-middle income countries', and from both parents and staff involved in care.