THE EURONIC PROJECT - A EUROPEAN CONCERTED ACTION ON INFORMATION TO PARENTS AND ETHICAL DECISION-MAKING IN NEONATAL INTENSIVE-CARE

The paper presents the background, objectives and methods of a Europea n concerted action project aimed at exploring the transmission of info rmation to parents and the ethical decision-making process in neonatal intensive care from the perspective of health personnel, and in relat ion to the legal, cultural, social and ethical backgrounds of the vari ous European countries. Eight countries are taking part in the project (France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands a nd the United Kingdom), which is about to be extended also to Central and Eastern Europe (Estonia, Lithuania and Hungary). In each of them, the medical and nursing personnel of a number of randomly selected uni ts will be interviewed through an anonymous, self-administered questio nnaire. Information on the organisation and policies of the Units and on the national legislation will also be collected. The key features o f the study lie in the multidisciplinary and international approach, t he random selection of the sample as a guarantee of representativeness and lack of selection bias, the focus on the staff practices as well as on their attitudes and opinions.