Facilitating family centred care: the co-design development of text messages for fathers with an infant in NICU

While active engagement of both parents in neonatal intensive care is considered best practice, fathers are less involved than mothers. This study describes the co-development of text messages targeting fathers whose infants were admitted to NICU, supporting Family Centred Care aims. Parents whose infants were admitted to NICU completed a survey of fathers' needs (Stage 1). Qualitative descriptive analysis (Stage 2) created topics for text messages (Stage 3). These were reviewed for importance and understanding by fathers and for clinical relevance by clinicians (Stage 4). Messages were revised and screened again (Stages 5-6) to produce a final set (Stage 7). Mothers (<i>n</i> = 36) and fathers (<i>n</i> = 15) responded to the survey, with analysis producing 12 themes and 21 subthemes. The 57 draft messages generated from themes were highly rated by 64 fathers and 41 clinicians (median rating 4.85/5). Twenty-three messages were accepted unchanged whilst 32 required editing and two were discarded, resulting in 55 messages. Final evaluation by 13 fathers and 11 clinicians led to 49 messages. Messages for fathers whose infants are admitted to NICU, developed and evaluated collaboratively with lived-experience parents and clinicians, can address identified needs and may better engage fathers whilst meeting Family Centered Care goals.