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. 2024 Jun 13:12:1390209.
doi: 10.3389/fped.2024.1390209. eCollection 2024.

Practice recommendations regarding parental presence in NICUs during pandemics caused by respiratory pathogens like COVID-19

Marsha Campbell-Yeo  1   2 , Fabiana Bacchini  3 , Lynsey Alcock  2 , Souvik Mitra  4 , Morgan MacNeil  1   2 , Amy Mireault  2 , Marc Beltempo  5 , Tanya Bishop  2 , Douglas M Campbell  6 , Addie Chilcott  7 , Jeannette L Comeau  2   8 , Justine Dol  2 , Amy Grant  9 , Jonathon Gubbay  10 , Brianna Hughes  1   11 , Amos Hundert  2 , Darlene Inglis  2 , Alanna Lakoff  12 , Yasmin Lalani  3   13 , Thuy Mai Luu  14 , Jenna Morton  3   15 , Michael Narvey  16 , Karel O'Brien  17   18 , Paula Robeson  19 , Michelle Science  17   20 , Prakesh Shah  17   18 , Leah Whitehead  2   3
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Practice recommendations regarding parental presence in NICUs during pandemics caused by respiratory pathogens like COVID-19

Marsha Campbell-Yeo et al. Front Pediatr. .

Abstract

Aim: To co-create parental presence practice recommendations across Canadian NICUs during pandemics caused by respiratory pathogens such as COVID-19.

Methods: Recommendations were developed through evidence, context, Delphi and Values and Preferences methods. For Delphi 1 and 2, participants rated 50 items and 20 items respectively on a scale from 1 (very low importance) to 5 (very high). To determine consensus, evidence and context of benefits and harms were presented and discussed within the Values and Preference framework for the top-ranked items. An agreement of 80% or more was deemed consensus.

Results: After two Delphi rounds (n = 59 participants), 13 recommendations with the highest rated importance were identified. Consensus recommendations included 6 strong recommendations (parents as essential caregivers, providing skin-to-skin contact, direct or mothers' own expressed milk feeding, attending medical rounds, mental health and psychosocial services access, and inclusion of parent partners in pandemic response planning) and 7 conditional recommendations (providing hands-on care tasks, providing touch, two parents present at the same time, food and drink access, use of communication devices, and in-person access to medical rounds and mental health and psychosocial services).

Conclusion: These recommendations can guide institutions in developing strategies for parental presence during pandemics caused by respiratory pathogens like COVID-19.

Keywords: COVID-19; neonatal care; pandemic planning; parental presence; participatory research (PR); practice recommendations; respiratory pathogens.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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  • Outcomes of Preterm Infants Admitted to Canadian NICUs Before and During the SARS-COV Pandemic.
    Campbell-Yeo M, Mireault A, Bacchini F, Beltempo M, Shah PS, Alcock L, Comeau J, Dol J, Grant A, Gubbay J, Hughes B, Hundert A, Inglis D, Lalani Y, MacNeil M, Luu TM, Mitra S, Narvey M, O'Brien K, Robeson P, Science M, Canadian Neonatal Network Cnn Investigators. Campbell-Yeo M, et al. Children (Basel). 2025 Feb 6;12(2):193. doi: 10.3390/children12020193. Children (Basel). 2025. PMID: 40003295 Free PMC article.

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