To explore the conditions of dying infants in NICU in Taiwan.

PURPOSES: Research purposes were to document the symptoms characteristic of neonates during their last week of life and to describe the activities undertaken in nursing care of dying neonates in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

METHODS

A retrospective chart review was used in this research. All charts of neonatal inpatients who died in the NICU between 2002 and 2008 and who met entry criteria were included the research review.

RESULTS

Sixty-one charts were evaluated in this research. The major underlying disease was the complications of prematurity (33%). Major physiological distress signs in the last week of life included respiratory distress (67.2%), cyanosis (54.1%), bradycardia (36.1%), oliguria (31.1%), and generalized edema (37.7%). All infants were intubated and received artificial ventilation in the last week of life. Physicians prescribed an analgesic medicine for 7 infants, and 7 infants received comfort interventions to manage their distress signs. Forty-one infants had preexisting do-not-resuscitate order at the time of death.

CONCLUSIONS

Research findings suggest that the application of palliative care paradigm and more aggressive comfort care to manage signs in NICU might be beneficial to dying infants.