TY - JOUR T1 - Developing a method to capture parental experience in a neonatal surgical centre in the context of COVID-19: a qualitative study JF - BMJ Paediatrics Open JO - BMJ Paediatrics Open DO - 10.1136/bmjpo-2022-001434 VL - 6 IS - 1 SP - e001434 AU - Rebecca Kate Mernenko AU - Anna Littlejohns AU - Gary Latchford AU - Emile Crouzen AU - Waaka Moni-Nwinia AU - Bhanumathi Lakshminarayanan AU - Hemma Chauhan AU - Elizabeth Lawson AU - Douglas McConachie AU - John G McElwaine AU - Fiona Metcalfe AU - Gurdeep Singh Sagoo AU - Liz McKechnie AU - Jonathan Sutcliffe Y1 - 2022/07/01 UR - http://bmjpaedsopen.bmj.com/content/6/1/e001434.abstract N2 - Introduction Improved parental experience is related to improved mental and physical health outcomes for the infant. The COVID-19 pandemic abruptly impacted on healthcare delivery and services need information to shape how to manage the disruption and recovery.Methods Our aim was to develop a systematic process to capture parents’ experience of their neonatal surgical healthcare journey during the pandemic. We identified relevant stakeholders and using semistructured interviews, we explored three key themes.(1) How to recruit and collect data from representative parents?(2) What questions should be asked?(3) How to disseminate results for service development?Results Responses indicated the need to involve ‘difficult to access groups’ (eg, first language not English, high social deprivation, low health literacy), defined the range of family and patient characteristics variables to be considered for representative responses (eg, antenatal diagnosis, disease complexity, number of siblings, single parent, parental health). The proposed questions were grouped into five main topics: information preadmission; in-patient experience; support during admission; the effect of COVID-19; discharge and posthospital experience. Recommendations for dissemination included local, regional and national fora as well as the need to feedback to participants about the changes made.Based on the analysis, we developed a semistructured interview which underwent cognitive testing, prepilot and pilot phase testing.Discussion This protocol is grounded in the views of relevant stakeholders to ensure it captures relevant information in a pragmatic but methodologically sound way. It will next be used to assess parental experience in a large neonatal surgical unit. We hope that the protocol could be adapted and used by other groups.Data are available upon reasonable request. ER -