Nurse and parent perspectives of a neonatal intensive care unit redesign from open-bay to single-family rooms

Objective: To assess nurse and parent perspectives of a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) redesign from open-bay (OPBY) to single-family rooms (SFR). Study design: We analyze interviews with NICU nurses and surveys with parents/guardians of neonates discharged from the NICU in the OPBY compared to SFR settings. Results: The SFR design increased privacy, eased facilitation of sterile and isolation procedures, and improved perceived comfort of parent participation in breastfeeding and kangaroo, or skin-to-skin, care. Increased privacy in the SFR design also resulted in unintended consequences including limited visibility of the healthcare team and increased need for clinician-parent communication. Policies and procedures meant to keep families safe during COVID-19 further decreased parents’ perceived access to and responsiveness of the healthcare team. Conclusions: Supportive policies and procedures promoting increased clinician-parent communication and additional parental supports may need to accompany transitions to SFRs to realize improvements in parental assessments of quality of care.