for neonatal and paediatric healthcare professionals

PARENTAL SUPPORT | VOLUME 21 ISSUE 1/FEBRUARY 2025

Informing culturally sensitive neonatal palliative care: Divergence of belief

Following on from the first and second in the series on informing culturally sensitive neonatal palliative care in Infant journal,^1,2 which focused on communication and bereavement support on neonatal units, this article will focus on how neonatal teams provide culturally appropriate support for parents from culturally diverse communities.

Marie Clancy
Senior Lecturer in Nursing, Academy of Nursing, University of Exeter

Felicity Thomas
Professor in Culture and Health Inequalities, Department of Health and Community Sciences, Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health, University of Exeter

Hayley Redman
Research Assistant, Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health, University of Exeter

Edward Gasiorowski
Consultant Neonatologist and Neonatal Palliative Care Lead, Neonatal Unit, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust

Clancy M., Thomas F., Redman H., Gasiorowski E. Informing culturally sensitive neonatal palliative care: Divergence of belief. Infant 2025; 21(1): 8-10.

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Keywords

faith; spirituality; religion; culture; moral distress

Key points

The secular nature of health services can be at odds with the importance of spiritual, religious and faith-based values held by many culturally diverse families.
Divergence of belief can cause differing expectations around care which can lead to moral and ethical distress for staff.
Clinicians and allied professionals must endeavour to remain open and honest without letting their own beliefs or judgements influence their practice.

Also published in Infant:

VOLUME 20 ISSUE 5/SEPTEMBER 2024

Informing culturally sensitive neonatal palliative care: Focus on bereavement

Each year around 2,000 babies in England and Wales will require a palliative approach to care. While the need to provide compassionate care to culturally diverse families has been noted, there remains a distinct lack of evidence base to guide culturally sensitive neonatal palliative care. To address this gap, this research project brought together perspectives and expertise from nursing, applied social science, palliative care, health systems research and migration studies. In doing so, it provides important transdisciplinary insights into the experiences of culturally diverse families requiring neonatal palliative care, as well as insights into the challenges facing neonatal palliative care providers. In this series of articles that will be published in Infant in succession, three key themes that emerged from the research findings will be discussed: Bereavement, communication and divergence of belief. Each article ends with a set of questions intended to support reflective practice. These questions were developed through two workshops with multidisciplinary professionals working in neonatal palliative care. Those involved included a neonatal consultant, a bereavement midwife, an advanced neonatal practitioner, a practice development nurse in neonatal care, a regional neonatal lead nurse and a chaplain. Participants came from diverse areas across England offering regional insights.

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