Developmental Care of Premature Newborns: A Success Story from Evidence-based Research

Abstract

Nursing is useful to the society through the efforts to prevent health problems and through the care, the support and the comfort it provides to the public. In addition, nursing contributes to the advancement of knowledge about experiences of health and illness. Indeed, from the phenomena at the field experience, theoretical work and research in human health play a role in the development of the discipline and the nursing profession. The importance of research for nursing is particularly evident in a context in which evidence-based practice is being promoted, an unavoidable reality in the health field. However, research results do not translate so easily into practice, and it is often argued that there is a gap between the availability of research results and professional practice. Filling this gap cannot depend solely on the world of research and the availability of evidence. It also considers the practice environment and its ability to take into account the available results. This article aims at clarifying the link between the status of discipline, the nursing profession and care in order to establish the need for a better link between knowledge, research and the practice of nursing. It also seeks to briefly recall how knowledge and research contribute to the advancement of a discipline while having the potential and the power to improve practice. More specifically, an example of evidence will highlight how research findings can influence practice and care, outlining briefly how research on investigating the effect of variation in light and noise in neonatal departments in West especially in USA, Canada, Australia, France, etc, have improved the practice of nursing and how nursing theories can contribute not only to the advancement of nursing discipline, but also to the improvement of the provided cares. Levine's conservation model and the theory of promoting pre-term infant health served as a theoretical framework for experimentation to improve the practice of caring for pre-term infants, hence the obligation for nursing staff to pay attention to them and try to integrate them into their interventions.