Parents who spent more hours in intensive care units with their low birthweight newborn infant did not achieve autonomous care faster.

Abstract

We examined the correlation between how long it took the parents of very low birthweight infants, born weighing up to 1500 g, to provide different kinds of autonomous care in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). This prospective observational was conducted in the NICU of a Spanish hospital from 10 January 2020 to 3 May 2022. The unit had 11 beds single-family rooms and provided eight beds in an open bay room. The study examined breastfeeding, patient safety, participation in rounds, pain prevention and cleanliness. We studied 96 patients and their parents and there was no correlation between any type of care and the time it took parents to provide it autonomously. Parents in the single-family room cohort spent a median of 9.5 h per day between them in the NICU, while the parents in the open bay room spent 7.0 h with their infants (p = 0.03). However, parents in the single-family room group were able to recognise pain faster (p = 0.02). Parents in single-family rooms spent more time in the NICU and recognised pain faster but did not achieve autonomous care faster than parents in the open bay group.