Maternal and child health nurses' evaluation of infant-caregiver attachment

Iceberg Attachment for Infants

The concept analysis article reviewed in this document is "Attachment icebergs: Maternal and child health nurses' evaluation of infant-caregiver attachment" by Bryant et al. This article explores salient phenomena pertaining to the concept of infant attachment. However, it analyzes this phenomena from the perspective of nurses who are observing and working with infants and caregivers. The researchers were essentially attempting to solicit information from the nurses to explicate the phenomena of infant attachment, while determining what factors proved the most influential in this occurrence. As such, the researchers were able to glean a fair amount of insight not only about infant attachment, but about how to best treat it. Additional insight was also gleaned into factors that were germane to the nurses who observed infant attachment and who attempted to mitigate it with various degrees of success.

Method of Analysis

The method of analysis revolved around qualitative analysis of nurses employed in the maternal and child health segment of this profession. These nurses gave semi-structured interviews about their experience with infant-caregiver attachment. In this respect they were valuable subject matter experts because they observe this phenomena more frequently than others do. The focus of the interview was on the different facets of nursing that nurses relied upon while observing and interacting with children who experience infant attachment. These included various nursing skills required, as well as eminent thoughts and perceptions about their jobs in regards to this issue. From a more pragmatic standpoint, these interviews were recorded and transcribed. The basis for the majority of the interview questions stemmed from the Infant Mental Health and Carer Responsiveness Framework. They were analyzed with software and augmented via conventional note-taking to elucidate themes that were recurring. Specifically, the analysis involved "coding and team-thematic analysis" in addition to NVivo data analysis software...to organize and manage data and assist with analysis" (Bryant et al., 2016, p. 49).

Results of the Steps of Process

The initial step in this research study (which is the assessment step) was to determine that there actually were few means to determine the emotional and mental states of infants that were experiencing attachment issues. Therefore, the outcome of this first step was to conduct the research in this article so that the researchers could help to get a more pervasive attachment assessment that was applicable to multiple infants. The second step in the nursing process is the diagnosis step. During this step, the researchers for this article reviewed data regarding information about infant attachment. The researchers determined that there was little data that actually provided insight regarding this phenomenon. Therefore, they decided to utilize the measures that were closest in nature (the Infant Mental Health and Carer Responsiveness Framework) as the basis for assisting them with the subsequent step. That step, in turn, was the planning step, in which they planned the specific forms of research for this article. It was during this step that they decided on qualitative interviews of nurses who worked in the maternal and child health field of specialization.

Also, they devised questions based on the aforementioned framework, and decided upon appropriate measures for analyzing their data. During the fourth step they implemented their plan and actually interviewed the aforementioned nurses to determine what the most salient factors were for assessing infant attachment in an accurate and reliable way. The final step was an evaluation of their results so that they could determine significant findings. During this step they analyzed the data and came up with the frequently recurring themes. Specifically, those themes encompassed personal, workplace, intervention, knowledge, and skilled factors that need to be studied to create an accurate assessment of infant-caregiver attachment. Also, it was during this final step that the researchers ascertained that there was a parallel between icebergs and the manifestation of symptoms indicative of underlying infant attachment issues -- which were simply emblematic of the need to discern the greater problem causing those issues.

CONCLUSION

This article was able to elucidate a number of different facets of the assessment required for determining infant-caregiver attachment. The authors deployed a qualitative method to leverage the experience of nurses who worked in the maternal and children's health branch of nursing in regards to this matter. Subsequently, they uncovered a number of themes that are relative to assessing this condition. Also, they were able to determine that simply detecting the symptoms of this condition is not sufficient, and that doing so is merely grounds for much more work.