GIVEME 5 : a systematic family-centered round in French neonatal intensive care unit center: a feasability Pilot study
This pilot study demonstrates that the structured GIVEME FIVE family-centered round is a feasible and acceptable intervention in a French neonatal intensive care unit, achieving high implementation rates and reported improvements in care by both parents and healthcare workers.
Original paper licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This is an AI-generated explanation of the paper below. It is not written or endorsed by the authors. For technical accuracy, refer to the original paper. Read full disclaimer
In the quiet, humming environment of a neonatal intensive care unit, tiny infants fight for their first breaths while their parents wait on the other side of a glass wall. For weeks, this separation can feel like a physical barrier, creating a distance that makes it hard for parents to bond with their children or feel confident in the care being provided. Medical teams know that when parents are active partners in their child's treatment, the experience improves for everyone, but turning that idea into a daily routine is difficult. The concept of "family-centered care" suggests that parents should not just be visitors, but essential members of the medical team, invited to participate in the critical conversations about their baby's health. One specific way to do this is through "rounds," the regular times when doctors and nurses gather to discuss a patient's progress. Traditionally, these meetings happen behind closed doors, but a new approach invites parents to sit in the room, listen, and speak up alongside the specialists.
A team of researchers at a hospital in Aix-en-Provence, France, decided to test whether this kind of open, family-involved meeting could work in their own neonatal unit. They created a program they called "Give Me Five," designed to bring parents and medical staff together once a week for a structured conversation. The goal was not to prove that this method was better than the old way, but simply to see if it was possible to do it consistently and if the people involved would accept it. The team focused on five specific topics they felt were most important for every baby: nutrition, the emotional bond between parent and child, the baby's growing independence, pain management, and the plan for the future. They wanted to know if they could hold these meetings regularly, how long they would take, and whether parents and staff felt the process was helpful.
Over the course of a few months, the researchers included twenty families in their study. They set a schedule where different sections of the hospital had a designated day for these meetings. A senior doctor led the group, supported by nurses, therapists, or other specialists, and they gathered in the baby's room with the parents. The team used a checklist to ensure they covered all five key topics during each visit. They found that the program was largely successful in terms of getting off the ground. Out of fifty-five meetings that were planned, forty-three actually took place. This means the team managed to hold the family-centered rounds about three-quarters of the time they intended. The few meetings that were missed were almost always due to the medical team's schedule or the baby's immediate health needs, rather than parents refusing to attend. In fact, for most of the families, the team managed to hold more than half of the expected meetings, showing that the routine could be woven into the busy hospital day.
The conversations themselves took a bit longer than some other studies have reported, averaging twenty-six minutes per session. The researchers noticed an interesting pattern: the longer a baby stayed in the hospital, the longer the meetings tended to become. This suggests that as parents spent more time in the unit, they became more comfortable with the process, perhaps asking more questions or engaging more deeply with the care team. The time spent talking did not seem to be a burden that stopped the program; instead, it appeared to be a natural part of building a relationship between the family and the doctors. The study also looked at how people felt about the experience. When the researchers asked the parents and the medical staff to fill out simple questionnaires, the results were overwhelmingly positive. Nearly all the parents who responded said the meetings improved the care their child received, with most feeling this was completely true. The medical staff agreed, with every single respondent saying the meetings made a positive difference, though they were slightly less enthusiastic than the parents.
The researchers concluded that this structured, family-centered approach is feasible and can be repeated in a neonatal unit. The success seemed to come from having a clear plan, a set time, and a specific list of topics to cover, which helped everyone know what to expect. However, the study also highlighted that the biggest hurdles were not the parents or the idea itself, but the practical realities of a busy hospital, such as heavy workloads and tight schedules. While the team could not prove that this method changed medical outcomes like how long babies stayed in the hospital, they found that it was a workable way to include families in the daily care of their infants. The study suggests that with time and familiarity, both parents and staff can adapt to this new way of working, turning a routine medical check-in into a shared moment of care and connection.
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