Parental perceptions on the impact of visiting restrictions during COVID-19 in a tertiary neonatal intensive care unit.

ABSTRACT

AIM: During the first wave of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), visiting guidelines in neonatal units changed to maintain the health and safety of staff, neonates, and families. In the neonatal intensive care unit/special care nursery (NICU/SCN), restrictions were placed on parental contact and extended family excluded. Our team was interested in evaluating the effect of these restrictions on parental stress and discharge confidence. METHODS: A prospective descriptive study utilising survey methodology was undertaken. The survey was developed and previously used by the NICU research group to evaluate parental knowledge and understanding, parental role, communication, and parental stress (admission/discharge). We have also included a section regarding COVID19 visiting restrictions (ETH.2020.LRE.00124). The survey used a five-level Likert scale. Statistical analysis was completed using SPSS version 21. RESULTS: Notably, 33 surveys were returned. Results showed visiting restrictions reduced social contact between partners 26/33 (84%), with their other children 14/16 (87.5%) and extended family 28/33 (84.8%). Parents indicated that they had high levels of confidence in understanding their babies' medical needs (78-93%) and gaining hands-on experience caring for their baby (87-100%). However, 11/33 (33%) of parents reported concerns with discharge processes and gaining consistent information as challenges during their baby's admission. Notably, 17/33 (51.5) stated their NICU/SCN experience had been very to extremely stressful. Parents openly described how the restrictions had affected their mental/emotional health identifying the need to treat parents as one unit, and a gap in the psychological support available for families. CONCLUSION: Support services and consistency of communication with NICU/SCN families need to be enhanced and prioritised during periods of restrictions, especially peri-discharge.