Family centered care and practice in the neonatal intensive care unit

Objective: to understand the nursing team's perception regarding family centered care and its practice in the neonatal intensive care unit. Methods: qualitative research, based on the assumptions of Family Centered Care with 19 nursing professionals. Data were analyzed using a content analysis technique. Results: two categories emerged: effective communication as the foundation of the team and family bond; interferences in the care process in the neonatal intensive care unit. Conclusion: the perception of the professionals about the reception of the family, realization of strategies to facilitate the permanence of the parents in the unit and the creation of a team and family bond, notwithstanding the social contexts of the families, as well as the inexperience, the feelings of fear with the fragile new family member and the difficulty of effective communication between the team and the family are aspects that interfere in the practice of family centered care.