ABSTRACT
The sanitary measures taken within hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in particular during the "first wave" challenged the author in the context of clinical practice in a neonatal intensive care unit. Closing hospitals to visitors for health safety reasons led to preventing new fathers from entering maternity wards and limiting or even prohibiting parental visits to their hospitalised new-borns. How can we devise ways of building the family when the family is emerging or extending under such extreme conditions? Through a few observations and the analysis of a clinical case, the author invites us to rethink practices limiting visits of parents but also of siblings to hospitalised babies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) (French) Les mesures sanitaires prises dans les hopitaux durant l'epidemie mondiale de covid-19, notamment au cours de la << premiere vague , sont venues questionner l'auteure dans le cadre de sa pratique au sein d'un service de reanimation neonatale. La fermeture de l'institution hospitaliere aux visiteurs au nom de la securite sanitaire a ainsi conduit a fermer les services de suite de couches aux peres et a limiter, voire interdire, les visites des parents aupres de leur nouveau-ne hospitalise. Comment inventer des moyens de faire famille au moment ou la famille se constitue ou se reamenage dans des conditions aussi extremes ? Au travers de quelques observations et de l'analyse d'un cas clinique, l'auteure invite a repenser les pratiques limitant les visites des parents mais egalement des freres et soeurs aupres des bebes hospitalises. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Restrictions to hospital visiting were mandated during the COVID-19 pandemic, with variability in the degree of restriction imposed. At times, paediatric intensive care units (ICU) restricted visiting to one parent/carer. Views of parents/carers and ICU staff about changes in the visiting policy are not well understood. DESIGN: Service evaluation involving questionnaire survey incorporating rating scales and free-text comments. SETTING: Inner-city specialist children's hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Parents/carers of children on ICU between December 2020-March 2021 and staff who were working on ICU during May-June 2021. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: Parents and staff on ICU were invited to complete a questionnaire focusing on their experience of being or working on ICU. Quantitative data were analysed descriptively and free-text comments were thematically analysed. Completed questionnaires were received from 81/103 (79%) parents/carers and 217/550 (39%) staff. The majority of parents (n = 60;77%) and staff (n = 191;89%) understood the need for the one-parent visiting policy but acknowledged it was a source of considerable stress. More staff than parents agreed it was appropriate other relatives/friends visiting was not permitted (Z = 3.715;p < .001). There was no association between parents' satisfaction with their child's care and views about the visiting policy. However, staff were more likely to report an impact on their ability to deliver family centred care if they disagreed with the policy. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 visiting policy had a clear impact on parents and staff. In the event of any future threat to open-access visiting to children in hospital, the potentially damaging effect on children, parents, and staff must be considered. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Visiting policies need to take account of parents being partners in their child's care, rather than purely visitors to the unit where their child is being cared for. Visiting for two carers should always be facilitated, including during a crisis such as a pandemic.
ABSTRACT
Kapadia FN, Pattanaik S. Visitors in the Intensive Care Unit in the COVID Era. Indian J Crit Care Med 2022;26(3):251-252.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: To mitigate the spread of COVID-19, a nationwide restriction for all visitors of residents of long-term care facilities including nursing homes (NHs) was established in the Netherlands. The aim of this study was an exploration of dilemmas experienced by elderly care physicians (ECPs) as a result of the COVID-19 driven restrictive visiting policy. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: ECPs working in Dutch NHs. METHODS: A qualitative exploratory study was performed using an open-ended questionnaire. A thematic analysis was applied. Data were collected between April 17 and May 10, 2020. RESULTS: Seventy-six ECPs answered the questionnaire describing a total of 114 cases in which they experienced a dilemma. Thematic analysis revealed 4 major themes: (1) The need for balancing safety for all through infection prevention measures versus quality of life of the individual residents and their loved ones; (2) The challenge of assessing the dying phase and how the allowed exception to the strict visitor restriction in the dying phase could be implemented; (3) The profound emotional impact on ECPs; (4) Many alternatives for visits highlight the wish to compensate for the absence of face-to-face contact opportunities. Many alternatives for visits highlight the wish to compensate for the absence of face-to-face opportunities but given the diversity of NH residents, alternatives were often only suitable for some of them. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: ECPs reported that the restrictive visitor policy deeply impacts NHs residents, their loved ones, and care professionals. The dilemmas encountered as a result of the policy highlight the wish by ECPs to offer solutions tailored to the individual residents. We identified an overview of aspects to consider when drafting future visiting policies for NHs during the COVID-19 pandemic.