Ethics of rooming-in with COVID-19 patients: Mitigating loneliness at the end of life

• Published in: Journal of critical care Vol. 67; pp. 182 - 183
• Main Authors: Bunnik, Eline M., Siddiqui, Shahla, van Bruchem-Visser, Rozemarijn L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.02.2022; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Critical care; Death; Death & dying; Delirium; Disease transmission; Health care; Hospitals; Humans; Illnesses; Infections; Loneliness; Masks; Medical ethics; Medical supplies; Pandemics; Patients; Personal protective equipment; Physical restraints; Professional ethics; SARS-CoV-2; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; United States > US; Netherlands
• ISSN: 0883-9441; 1557-8615
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrc.2021.09.021

While little research has been conducted to gather evidence on the effectiveness of family involvement in the care of delirious patients [1], clinical experience suggests that the continuous presence of a family member – day and night – helps to avoid and treat delirium. The Erasmus MC rooming-in policy was abandoned at the height of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, based on three arguments: firstly, to protect family members against infection; secondly, to economize on personal protective equipment, which was, at that time, scarce in the Netherlands and reserved for healthcare personnel; and thirdly, to help minimize the transmission of the new coronavirus, and thus serve important societal interests. The third argument, however, remains: when (unvaccinated) family members are in rooms with COVID-19 patients for sustained periods of time and without adequate personal protective equipment, they risk contracting the disease and transmitting the virus, which is especially important as it could lead to harm to others.