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Assessment and Evaluation of the High Risk Neonate: The NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale
Published on: August 25, 2014
Parental perceptions on the impact of visiting restrictions during COVID-19 in a tertiary neonatal intensive care
Margaret Broom1,2, Tim Cochrane1,3, Debbora Cruickshank1
1Centenary Hospital for Women and Children, Canberra Hospital, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.
Insights
COVID-19 visiting restrictions in neonatal units increased parental stress and reduced social contact. While parents felt confident in baby care, communication issues and lack of psychological support were significant challenges.
Area of Science:
- Neonatal care
- Public health
- Psychology
Background:
- COVID-19 pandemic necessitated changes in neonatal unit visiting guidelines.
- Restrictions impacted parental contact and family presence in neonatal intensive care units/special care nurseries (NICU/SCN).
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the effect of COVID-19 visiting restrictions on parental stress.
- To assess parental confidence in baby care and discharge processes.
Main Methods:
- Prospective descriptive study using survey methodology.
- Survey included sections on parental knowledge, role, communication, stress, and COVID-19 restrictions.
- Data collected via a five-level Likert scale and analyzed using SPSS version 21.
Main Results:
- Visiting restrictions significantly reduced social contact for 84-87.5% of parents.
- Most parents reported high confidence in understanding baby's medical needs (78-93%) and hands-on care experience (87-100%).
- 33% of parents faced challenges with discharge processes and consistent information; 51.5% found the NICU/SCN experience very to extremely stressful, citing mental health impacts and a need for better psychological support.
Conclusions:
- Enhanced support services and consistent communication are crucial for NICU/SCN families during restrictions.
- Prioritizing psychological support and treating parents as a unit is essential, particularly during the peri-discharge period.
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.
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