The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) represents an atypical environment that interferes with the relationship between parents and the baby, as well as provides unusual sensory experiences, resulting from frequent procedures that can cause pain, exposure to noise, excessive light, and mechanical ventilation. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) is divided into “Disability and Functioning” and “Contextual factors”, which provide a large number of coders through an alphanumeric system in which the letters related to each domain are followed by a code that starts with the chapter number (one digit), followed by the second level (two digits) and the third and fourth levels (one digit each). The ICF can also provide us with a set of coders directed in shorter forms, called CORE SETS or Checklists, which also allow us to classify and evaluate the environmental factors involved in the NICU.

To identify the coders of the ICF environmental factors related to the NICU.

This is a cross-sectional study, carried out from May to September 2021, characterized as an expert survey, based on the guidelines of the World Health Organization and the ICF research department for the development of a CORE SET. Health professionals from different areas, with at least two years of experience in the NICU and/or in research on the subject, were recruited. The professionals answered a virtual form, using the Google Forms platform, with sociodemographic questions and open questions about the environmental factors involved in the NICU scenario. Subsequently, three independent evaluators linked the answers with the categories and domains of the ICF, based on international guidelines.

Fifty health professionals answered the questionnaire during the data collection period. Most were female (94%), with a mean age of 39.30 ± 9.16 years, 54% were physiotherapists, 22% nurses, 10% nursing technicians, and 10% physicians, with a mean of 15.56 ± 9.36 years of training. The process of linking responses about the NICU environment and the ICF codes generated a total of 33 categories of environmental factors.

Based on the various physical, attitudinal, and social aspects considered as barriers and facilitators by professionals working in NICUs, it was possible to identify 33 categories of ICF environmental factors related to this environment, 14 of them at level 2 and 19 at level 3.

From the identification of the coders, we can proceed with the next steps of the research to arrive at the final model of an ICF checklist of environmental factors for the NICU. This checklist is essential to understand, classify and evaluate the environmental factors involved in the NICU and to encourage the creation of assessment instruments focused on these aspects.