Impact of Parental Presence at the Ethics Meeting in Neonatal Intensive Care (PaReNCo)
In neonatal intensive care, physicians are sometimes confronted with decisions to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment for a critically ill newborn. In France, these decisions are made by the medical team through a formal collegial ("ethics") meeting. Parents are not legally required to take part in this meeting, and their participation remains very rare at the national level.
Since 2018, the neonatal intensive care unit of Hopital NOVO (Nord Ouest Val d'Oise) (Pontoise site) has systematically offered parents the possibility of attending the collegial ethics meeting concerning their child when withholding or withdrawal of treatment is being considered. This study aims to evaluate the value of parental presence at the ethics meeting in helping parents understand the medical decisions made for their newborn.
This is a retrospective, single-centre, non-interventional, qualitative study based on a questionnaire developed specifically for this purpose, in the absence of any validated tool. Parents of newborns for whom an ethics meeting was held between 1 January 2018 and 31 December 2025 are invited to share their experience. Two questionnaire versions are used, one for parents who attended the meeting and one for parents who did not, allowing comparison between the two situations. The questionnaire explores parents' understanding of the decision, the emotional impact of the meeting, their sense of guilt and their acceptance of the decision.
Main hypothesis: parental participation in the ethics meeting promotes a better understanding of the medical decision, reduces feelings of guilt, and improves parents' long-term emotional experience.
調査の概要
状態
詳細な説明
End-of-life decisions account for a substantial proportion of deaths in neonatal intensive care units, exceeding 70% in some cohorts in Europe and North America. These decisions are most often made following a multidisciplinary collegial decision-making process.
In France, the legal framework (Loi Leonetti 2005, reinforced by Loi Claeys-Leonetti 2016) is based on the principles of non-obstination déraisonnable and proportionality of care. This framework does not require the formal presence of parents during collegial meetings.
International literature on shared decision-making is associated with improved parental outcomes. A French multicenter study (Caeymaex et al., 2013) reported that parental involvement in end-of-life decisions was associated with lower rates of complicated grief, including reduced feelings of guilt and exclusion.
Despite this, formal parental participation in collegial meetings remains uncommon in France, in the context of prevailing models of care and concerns regarding parental emotional burden.
Since 2018, the neonatal intensive care unit at Hôpital NOVO has offered parents the option to attend collegial meetings. This process includes prior preparation by the attending physician, who clarifies that final medical responsibility remains with the healthcare team, as well as optional psychological support before and/or after the meeting.
This model has been previously described (Boize et al., Arch Pédiatr, 2024), but parental subjective and emotional experiences have not been systematically evaluated. The PaReNCo study aims to assess these outcomes.
研究の種類
入学 (推定)
連絡先と場所
研究連絡先
- 名前:Veronique DA COSTA
- 電話番号:0033130755069
- メール:veronique.dacosta@ght-novo.fr
研究場所
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Cergy-Pontoise、フランス、95300
- Hopital Novo
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コンタクト:
- Veronique DA COSTA
- 電話番号:0033130755069
- メール:veronique.dacosta@ght-novo.fr
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-
参加基準
適格基準
就学可能な年齢
- 大人
- 高齢者
健康ボランティアの受け入れ
サンプリング方法
調査対象母集団
説明
Inclusion Criteria:
- Adult parent (≥18 years)
- Parent of a newborn for whom an ethics meeting was organized within the neonatal intensive care unit of Hôpital NOVO - Pontoise site
- Ethics meeting organized between 01/01/2018 and 31/12/2025
Exclusion Criteria:
- Refusal to participate in the study (refusal to complete the questionnaire and refusal to allow use of the child's medical record data)
- Parent with a major inability to understand the study (severe cognitive impairment)
- Parent not understanding French and therefore unable to complete the questionnaire
研究計画
研究はどのように設計されていますか?
デザインの詳細
この研究は何を測定していますか?
主要な結果の測定
結果測定 |
メジャーの説明 |
時間枠 |
|---|---|---|
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Parents' understanding of the medical decision made for their child following the ethics meeting.
時間枠:Questionnaire completion (15 minutes per parent)
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Self-reported understanding assessed with the study-specific questionnaire (items 14, 15, 16 and 17 for parents who attended the meeting; items 6, 7, 10 and 14 for parents who did not attend), with responses rated on a 1-5 Likert scale (1 = not all, 5 = completely).
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Questionnaire completion (15 minutes per parent)
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二次結果の測定
結果測定 |
メジャーの説明 |
時間枠 |
|---|---|---|
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Overall emotional experience of the ethics meeting
時間枠:Questionnaire completion (15 minutes per parent)
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Overall emotional experience concerning the meeting, assessed using a study-specific questionnaire (questions 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13 and 21 for parents who attended the meeting; questions 4, 5, 9, 13, 15 and 17 for parents who did not attend).
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Questionnaire completion (15 minutes per parent)
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Parental attendance rate at the ethics meeting
時間枠:Retrospective assessment for ethics meetings organized between 01/01/2018 and 31/12/2025
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Parental attendance rate at the ethics meeting, defined as the number of parents who attended the meeting divided by the number of parents invited to attend the meeting concerning their child.
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Retrospective assessment for ethics meetings organized between 01/01/2018 and 31/12/2025
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Mortality rate of newborns for whom an ethics meeting was organized.
時間枠:Retrospective assessment for ethics meetings organized between 01/01/2018 and 31/12/2025
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Number of deceased newborns divided by the number of newborns for whom an ethics meeting was organized, collected from the medical record
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Retrospective assessment for ethics meetings organized between 01/01/2018 and 31/12/2025
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Parental feeling of guilt regarding the decision
時間枠:Questionnaire completion (15 minutes per parent)
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Parents' feeling of guilt at the time of the ethics meeting (questions 10 and 20 for parents present; questions 8 and 12 for parents not present).
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Questionnaire completion (15 minutes per parent)
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Parental acceptance of the decision made by the medical team.
時間枠:Questionnaire completion (15 minutes per parent)
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Assessed using questionnaire items 8, 11, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25 and 26 (parents present) and items 11 and 16 (parents not present).
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Questionnaire completion (15 minutes per parent)
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協力者と研究者
スポンサー
捜査官
- 主任研究者:Suzanne BORRHOMEE, Dr、Hôpital NOVO - Site Pontoise
研究記録日
主要日程の研究
研究開始 (推定)
一次修了 (推定)
研究の完了 (推定)
試験登録日
最初に提出
QC基準を満たした最初の提出物
最初の投稿 (実際)
学習記録の更新
投稿された最後の更新 (実際)
QC基準を満たした最後の更新が送信されました
最終確認日
詳しくは
本研究に関する用語
その他の研究ID番号
- CHRD0624
- 2026-A00780-51 (その他の識別子:ANSM)
個々の参加者データ (IPD) の計画
個々の参加者データ (IPD) を共有する予定はありますか?
医薬品およびデバイス情報、研究文書
米国FDA規制医薬品の研究
米国FDA規制機器製品の研究
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