Date on Paper

8-2025

Document Type

Doctoral Paper

Degree Name

D.N.P.

Committee Chair

Baker, Leann

Committee Member

Knott, Kimberly

Author's Keywords

kangaroo care; Neonatal Intensive Care Unit; skin to skin; quality improvement; neonatal sensory experience

Abstract

Introduction: Premature infants in the NICU are exposed to many noxious stimuli that could cause negative effects on development. The SENSE® program has been developed to provide developmentally appropriate sensory stimulation for neonates. This project will focus on sense of touch primarily with KC or also referred to as skin-to-skin.

Environment: This QI project took place in to a Level III NICU at a tertiary medical center in Louisville, Kentucky. The facility has a total of 421 beds including the NICU that is licensed for 34 beds and caring for infants born prematurely as early as 22 weeks to term gestation newborns with a variety of medical conditions.

Intervention: The primary intervention involves educating bedside nurses on initiating kangaroo care with infants and their parents, to improve initial KC and total KC time.

Data Collection: Baseline staff demographic information was collected during initial phase of intervention. Further, total KC time in hours was collected along with first KC from the time of birth at the study site.

Measures: A direct comparison was made to first KC and total KC time for premature infants prior to and after the intervention implementation. Run charts were utilized for data collection and to aid in understanding the impact of the implementation.

Conclusion: The average first KC was 161.7 hours (6.7 days) after the implementation of the project compared to the data of the first KC prior to the implementation which was 240.64 hours (~10 days). There was a decrease in the average time of the first KC in the NICU. The total KC time could not be compared due to the limitations in data collection and prior practice.

Download

Included in

Nursing Commons

Share

COinS