BUSSW Researcher Explores Equity in NICU Design
Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) are built to save critically ill newborns, but for families who don’t fit a narrow, traditional mold, the experience can be isolating.
Lindsay Rosenfeld, a research scientist with the Institute for Equity in Child Opportunity and Healthy Development (IECOHD) at BUSSW, offers a new perspective in a co-authored article in the Journal of Perinatology about designing NICUs to better support diverse families, alongside Professor Vincent C. Smith from Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine/BMC, and Molly Fraust-Wylie, family advocate and former NICU Family Program Manager at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
From the abstract:
“Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) are often designed to primarily optimize the health of critically ill newborns. However, prolonged hospitalizations and stressors, in particular for diverse families, can lead to alienation. In this Perspective, we explore how NICUs can be designed to center the diversity of the families cared for in the NICU including, but not limited to, racial and ethnic diversity, LGBTQ+ headed families, non-traditional families, families with disabled caregivers, families who prefer a language other than English, and those with low health literacy.”