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

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.
Competing Interests: 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.
(© 2024 Campbell-Yeo, Bacchini, Alcock, Mitra, MacNeil, Mireault, Beltempo, Bishop, Campbell, Chilcott, Comeau, Dol, Grant, Gubbay, Hughes, Hundert, Inglis, Lakoff, Lalani, Luu, Morton, Narvey, O'Brien, Robeson, Science, Shah and Whitehead.)