Publication
Lived experiences of healthcare personnel in supporting parents around neonatal death: encounters, challenges and meaning
Pant S, Kelly M, Morales M, Thayyil S, Lavender T · BMJ Paediatrics Open · 2026
Objective: To explore healthcare personnel's (HCP) lived experiences of caring for dying newborns and supporting bereaved parents in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), drawing on relational, ethical and organisational factors. Design: Qualitative study using hermeneutic phenomenology. Semistructured, in-depth interviews analysed thematically to interpret the meanings embedded in participants' narratives. Setting: Three tertiary NICUs in the UK. Participants: Eight female HCP (five nurses, three doctors) with 3-20 years' (median=12 years) NICU experience. Results: Experiences were strongly shaped by temporality and clinical trajectory. Expected deaths (gradual decline) enabled preparation, continuity of carer and opportunities for closeness and memory-making, whereas unexpected deaths (sudden deterioration) heightened moral distress, complicated communication and constrained what could be offered to families. Four themes described how optimal experiences were pursued: (1) facilitating parent-infant closeness, (2) providing comprehensive family support, (3) communication and interpersonal engagement and (4) an emotionally intense experience for HCPs.The study revealed an overarching phenomenon-creating an optimal experience for parents as an implicit coping mechanism for HCP. As they cared for a dying newborn and its family, it helped them achieve a sense of accomplishment as well as the strength to power through the distress and anguish. Conclusions: The study highlights the relational foundation of neonatal end-of-life care, showing that HCPs' well-being and quality of parental support and care provided are closely linked. Recognising this interdependence may inform training, supervision and organisational design to strengthen compassionate and sustainable NICU bereavement care.
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