Evaluating the need for and impact of policy change is imperative in the climate of managed care and competition between care providers. We are working to create a quantitative instrument to drive and document visitation policy change as part of a larger project to improve outcomes for babies, parents and staff in our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Because we found little research on how visitation policies affect parents and staff, we began our project with freeform qualitative interviews. Nineteen nurses and 16 parents were asked to describe important issues — including restricted visitation during shift changes — related to the visitation policy. We hypothesized that nurses would support decreased visitation and parents would support increased visitation. Nursing responses to parent visitation could be categorized in 3 ways: 1) holding and bonding are important (33%); 2) parents demand nurses’ time – reducing job efficiency (33%); and 3) bonding is important, but parents demand nurses’ time (33%). None of the nurses supported decreased time for visitation; however, 63% stated that absence of parents during shift change provided some relief for nurses. Surprisingly, 81% of parents expressed positive feelings about leaving during shift change, stating that it provided a break. Other unexpected findings related to policy inconsistency, confidentiality, and parenting skills. The qualitative work has resulted in a shift in the focus of this project. We will present findings from this study and the ongoing quantitative study to illustrate the utility of qualitative data in initiating and documenting the effect of policy change.
Learning Objectives: After this session, the learner will be able to: 1. Define qualitative research; 2. Describe situations which would be appropriate for qualitative research; 3. Illustrate the utility of qualitative data in initiating and documenting policy change
Keywords: Policy/Policy Development, Methodology
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.