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In February 2020, during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, 232 evacuees from Wuhan, China, were placed under federal 14-day quarantine upon arrival at a US military base in San Diego, California. We describe the monitoring of evacuees and responders for symptoms of COVID-19, case and contact investigations, infection control procedures, and lessons learned to inform future quarantine protocols for evacuated people from a hot spot resulting from a novel pathogen. Thirteen (5.6%) evacuees had COVID-19-compatible symptoms and 2 (0.9%) had laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2. Two case investigations identified 43 contacts; 3 (7.0%) contacts had symptoms but tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Daily symptom and temperature screening of evacuees and enacted infection control procedures resulted in rapid case identification and isolation and no detected secondary transmission among evacuees or responders. Lessons learned highlight the challenges associated with public health response to a novel pathogen and the evolution of mitigation strategies as knowledge of the pathogen evolves.

Background: Family‐centred care (FCC), while a core value of paediatric hospitals, has not been well‐studied in the paediatric cardiac intensive care unit (PCICU). Aim: To describe parents' perceptions of FCC provided by nurses in the PCICU during their infant's recovery from neonatal cardiac surgery and explore associations of perceptions of FCC on parent post‐traumatic stress (PTS) 4 months post‐discharge. Study Design: Data obtained from a previously conducted randomized clinical trial (RCT) on telehealth home monitoring after neonatal cardiac surgery at three free‐standing paediatric hospitals were analysed from a subset of 164 parents who completed the FCC Scale at hospital discharge, which measures a parent's experience of nursing care that embodies core principles of FCC. The RCT intervention was provided after hospital discharge, having no influence on parent's perception of FCC. The intervention also had no effect on PTS. Results: Perceived FCC was lowest for items 'nurses helped me feel welcomed' and 'nurses helped me feel important in my child's care'. Having 12%–19% points lower perception of FCC at hospital discharge was associated with parent experience of six or more PTS symptoms, at least moderate PTS symptom severity, or PTS disorder diagnosis at 4‐month follow‐up. Every 10% increase in parental perceptions of FCC was associated with less PTS symptoms (β = −0.29, SE = 0.12; p =.02) and lower PTS symptom cluster scores of arousal (β = −0.18, SE = 0.08; p =.02). Conclusions: Parents who perceived lower FCC during their infants' hospitalization were at increased risk for the development of PTS symptoms, more PTS symptom severity and PTS disorder diagnosis 4‐months post‐discharge. Relevance to Clinical Practice: Nurses have a prominent role to support the implementation of FCC for infants with cardiac defects and their parents. FCC may positively influence overall parent mental health and well‐being, reducing the trauma and distress of the PCICU experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Background: Parents of infants born with congenital heart disease (CHD) who require open heart surgery after birth are at risk for prolonged psychological distress. Even after their infants are discharged, parents may experience anxiety, depressive, and post−traumatic stress (PTS) symptoms; yet, it is unclear which parents are at greater risk for ongoing symptoms. The purpose of this study was to explore whether measures of the biomarker cortisol in parents during their infants' postoperative period were associated with subsequent psychological distress symptoms at three−month post discharge. Methods: This was a prospective, longitudinal exploratory study of 40 parents of infants with CHD after open heart surgery using consecutive enrollment. Parents provided diurnal saliva samples for two consecutive days in the postoperative period. Six predictors were summarized and generated including waking cortisol, bedtime cortisol, cortisol awaking response, area under curve with respect to the ground (AUCg), cortisol index, and cortisol slope. Self−report outcome measures on anxiety, depressive, and PTS symptoms were collected three−months post−discharge. Linear mixed models examined the associations between each predictor and each outcome while accounting for within−dyad variance using an unstructured covariance matrix. Results: Cortisol AUCg was a predictor of PTS at three−months post−discharge (β =.34, p =.03, Cohen's d = 2.05). No significant relationships were found with the other cortisol measures. Conclusions & Implications: Findings suggest that cortisol area under curve may help to identify parents at risk for increased PTS in the months following their infants' hospitalization for cardiac surgery, serving as a foundation for future study in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]