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

Publication date: Jul 03, 2025

To assess nurse and parent perspectives of a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) redesign from open-bay (OPBY) to single-family rooms (SFR). We analyze interviews with NICU nurses and surveys with parents/guardians of neonates discharged from the NICU in the OPBY compared to SFR settings. 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. 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.

Semantics

Original Article