Abstract
Background: Developmental supportive carerecognizes the physical, psychological and emotional vulnerabilities of premature and low birth weight infants. The aim of this study was to assess knowledge and practice of nurses regarding developmental supportive care for preterm and low birth weight infants in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Subjects and method: design: A descriptive designwas used, the study was carried out on 180 nurses at the governmental hospitals at Mansoura City. Tools: Tool (1) Structured interview for nurses' personal characteristics and their knowledge about preterm infant and developmental supportive care. Tool (2) an observational checklist for nurses' practice of developmental supportive care for preterm and low birth weight infants during daily nursing care procedures. Results revealed that most of the studied nurses had satisfactory level of knowledge regarding developmental supportive care for preterm and low birth weight infants while of them had inadequate practice of developmental supportive care for preterm and low birth weight infants, there were no statistically significant relation between nurses' knowledge and their actual practice (p < 0.05). Conclusion: 64.4% of the studied nurses had satisfactory level of knowledge regarding developmental supportive care for preterm and low birth weight infants, while more than half of studied nurses (56.7%) had inadequate level of practicing developmental supportive care for preterm and low birth weight infants. Recommendations. Setting training and educational programs for nurses to improve their knowledge and their performance regarding developmental supportive care for preterm and low birth weight infants.
Highlights
Prematurity is defined as a birth that occurs before 37 completed weeks of gestation
According the present study findings, nearly two-third of the studied nurses had satisfactory level of knowledge regarding developmental supportive care for preterm and low birth weight infants; this might be due to knowledge that nurses attained during their years of education in diploma, institute or bachelor of nursing. this result was in the same line with Hendricks-Muñoz et al (2010) In evaluating beliefs regarding the general concepts of developmental care, results demonstrated that neonatal nurses held strong beliefs related to the importance of sound, light, and touch parameters of developmental care regardless of type of training, leadership staff, and team staffing
As regarding the actual nurses' practice regarding developmental supportive care for preterm and low birth weight infants in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), the results of the current study showed that more than half of the studied nurses had inadequate practice of developmental supportive care during daily procedures
Summary
Prematurity is defined as a birth that occurs before 37 completed weeks (less than 259 days) of gestation. It is associated with approximately one-third of all infant deaths. The aim of this study was to assess knowledge and practice of nurses regarding developmental supportive care for preterm and low birth weight infants in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Tool (2) an observational checklist for nurses' practice of developmental supportive care for preterm and low birth weight infants during daily nursing care procedures. Setting training and educational programs for nurses to improve their knowledge and their performance regarding developmental supportive care for preterm and low birth weight infants
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