P0484 - Virtual Neonatal Visitation in an Intensive Care Unit: Advantages of Technology during a PANDEMIC

Virtual Neonatal Visitation in an Intensive Care Unit: Advantages of Technology during a PANDEMIC

More than 7% of all live births in the USA are admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The relationship between parents and their children, including sick term and preterm infants, begins in an unfamiliar, stressful and highly technological NICU environment creating an unfavorable environment in many different areas. A baby's stay in the NICU can last anywhere from a few days to a few months, challenging a parent's well-being, as well as parent-infant relationships, by separating them at a crucial time. The separation of parents from their infant delays the opportunity to parent while in the hospital. Moreover, the child’s environment, which may involve being surrounded by multiple lines and tubes, as well the infant's lack of responsiveness impairs parental infant attachment; decreasing parental self-confidence and fostering feelings of being a “surrogate parent”

Over time, technology has been utilized as a component of Family Center Care to facilitate communication through multiple media avenues such as telephone, mobile phones, text messages, internet Skyping and FaceTime. More recently, technology has been utilized as a method of facilitating parental-infant attachment through photographs, videophones and web cameras (virtual visitation) with promising results.

Virtual visitation goes beyond communication. It allows for the parent and other family members to establish a dynamic relationship through on-going access that takes into account the maturation, individual differences and responses of their baby over time, enhancing parent-infant interaction and bonding. During this pandemic, restrictions in the NICU unit have challenged families even more by allowing only one parent to visit the child.

Methods:
A cross sectional study was implemented to describe barriers and challenges regarding the use of virtual visitation in a NICU b) strategies implemented to solve the nurses’ reported problems and challenges and (c) scope of use of the virtual visitation technology in the NICU before and after the pandemic.

Results:
The results collected in this study indicate that the implementation of virtual visitation has many benefits for the NICU parents although it is a complex process. By systematically solving the concerns of the nurses, the project seems to be molded to a final project accepted both by parents and NICU personnel. After the installation, the average number of views increased every year and in the last months during the pandemic the use of virtual visitation increased exponentially due to the hospital restrictions.

Discussion:
Even though families have described baby interactions as important to reducing stress levels and feelings of anxiety, and to developing parent–infant attachment, the virtual visitation can become another tool to help parents reduce the stress caused by the physical separation.