Table 2 Perceived challenges for patient care and education due to COVID-19

Less Hands-on Parent Education

“Unfortunately, when it comes to our online classes, I’m not able to have their video cameras on… so now I just see a brief name, I can’t see them anymore. So I’m not sure who’s attending. So it’s a little more difficult for me to... I don’t feel like I’m getting everything that I want to get across to everyone.”

“There are things that we had in place that I liked that we have kind of stopped doing education wise, like car seat education and stuff…. We had like a car seat that we would take into the rooms and it had a baby in it and we would like show them how to proper installation of a car seat and making sure baby’s in there safe. But we don’t necessarily like bring that car seat in and out now.”

“Prior to COVID, I really liked to bring both parents into the nursery… for the first bath, especially first-time parents and let them really be involved in that process so they could feel comfortable and not be reluctant when that time came at home. Unfortunately, that’s something that we’re no longer able to do. We can’t take families into the nurseries…. And so that has been sort of a downside because then they’re just kind of watching through the window.”

Early Discharge

“… So you have the patient asking, but you also have the physicians offering to send them home sooner. It just kind of speeds it up with how much time you have to give them teaching and how much time they have in the hospital to receive help from lactation or stuff like that.”

“And so just [from a] nursing standpoint, there’s just a lot to do, a lot that has to be done in 24 h for mom. We want to make sure pain’s under control before we send her home. And then baby, the hearing screens, CCHD, the PKU, make sure [bilirubin] is okay. So there’s a lot of things that has to be done, and sometimes it can be rushed. Well, as a nurse, I feel rushed...”

“[Early discharges] affects [my ability to do my job] a lot because we have less time. We try to get all the tests done and still ensure the safety and provide all the care that we’re supposed to, to those patients in less timeframe…. I do feel a little rushed when they request … to go home early.”