| Before admission to NNU | Monthly fetal medicine multidisciplinary team meetings and 6 monthly reviews of fetal medicine clinic. Video tour of NNU now available prior to admission. Midwives now bring mothers to the NNU on their first visit, and the family care team provides orientation to the unit.
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| During admission to NNU | Psychology service now in place. Parents are actively encouraged to attended ward round. Their attendance is recorded and audited across the service. Badgernet video diaries used frequently to connect families with their baby when not on the unit. New screens purchased to help provide more privacy. Parking permits available for families, some designated parking spaces protected for neonatal family use.
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| Information and support | Joint neonatal and surgical ward rounds from Monday to Friday and weekly multiprofessional team meetings to have holistic oversight of progress and ongoing care planning. Every patient has a named neonatologist and named surgeon, with this displayed by the bedside. Poster with details and picture of staff uniforms and job roles to help families understand different staff roles. Hospital chaplaincy team starting to facilitate weekly coffee morning for families. Our new NNU podcast ‘Unexpected Beginnings: The Neonatal Unit’. This is hosted by veteran neonatal parents and runs through key aspects of being a parent on the NNU to provide support for other parents.
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| COVID-19 impact | Regular communication and letters given to all parents in relation to any infection prevention control issues. Parental feedback on COVID-19 concerns disseminated to all teams involved in neonatal care.
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| Discharge | Implementation of criteria-led discharge to help manage parental expectations and reduce delays on day of discharge. Multidisciplinary discharge meetings arranged for more complex infants, district general hospital teams invited virtually if there is a surgical neonate returned to local center. Weekly ‘discharge huddle’ to discuss patient flow, outstanding tasks and any family needs. Extra basic life support training sessions for staff so more staff is able to support parental training and reduce delays on discharge.
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