Family Integrated Care Bundle
This bundle includes two presentations essential in supporting parents of premature neonates in the NICU and a third presentation sharing the complex and unique challenges that may be experienced after discharge from the NICU. All these presentations are essential for NICU healthcare professionals in gaining an understanding on how to help families integrate into the NICU team and prepare for the lifetime journey.
The first presentation includes parents of former extremely low birth weight infants sharing their journey in the NICU. These gracious families share their experiences, feelings, suggestions, and gratitude.
The second presentation describes how the NICU healthcare professional not only plays a role in caring for premature babies, but also have a role in supporting mothers. The presentation discusses the psychological processes involved in the transition from woman to attainment of the maternal role, along with practical ways for the NICU team to support, affirm and empower a mother in the NICU.
The third presentation acknowledges the minor morbidities so common in the baby born preterm. In this presentation, you will hear first-hand of the impact of the NICU and minor morbidities from parents and former preterm infants. Evidence or best-practice strategies to reduce the occurrence of minor morbidities will be presented. The goal is to encourage clinicians to think beyond discharge from the NICU and consider that discharge home is only the beginning of a long, sometimes arduous journey for families.
Objectives:
1. Describe two common feelings families of small babies in the NICU experience.
2. Identify three care practices to incorporate into in the care of the small baby to promote family integration.
3. Explain two key psychological processes experienced by pregnant women as they transition to motherhood.
4. Describe two ways in which preterm birth and the NICU environment can hamper attachment through interruption in these processes.
5. Identify two care practices that can promote maternal role attainment.
6. Identify three minor morbidities commonly seen in extremely preterm infants.
7. List three care practice strategies to implement in the NICU to reduce the occurrence or impact of minor morbidities.
8. Incorporate the parent perspective of the long-term impact of the NICU on the lives of the infant and their families.
Total CE: 5.4
NCC Code NNP 3 or 7
NCC Code NIC 1 or 7
NCC Code LRN 2 or 7
Rx = 0
*Two of these presentations were included in the Small Baby Care Specialist® Program
Last updated: December 2021
**ALL PROCEEDS FROM THE SALE OF THIS COURSE WILL BE DONATED TO CHARITIES SUPPORTING THE PRETERM BABY AND FAMILY EXPERIENCE IN THE NICU**
Your Instructor
Family Partnered Care is facilitated by Amy Nyberg a NICU parent advisor and March of Dimes Family Support Coordinator at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital. She coordinates interviews with three families sharing their NICU experience.
Maternal Role is provided by Alexandra Luton, a Neonatal Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) from Houston. Alex has practiced as a Neonatal CNS, gradually discovering distinct passions for education, quality improvement and building teams.
Life After the NICU is jointly presented by Ginny Shaffer and Mindy Morris. Ginny is a NICU parent and a NICU Family Centered Care Program Coordinator. Mindy is an Advanced Practice neonatal clinician with an aptitude for application of evidence into practice. Ginny and Mindy have a passion for neuro-protective, neuro-promotional, and family partnered care. They believe that it is the little things, every day, that make a big difference in the lives of the babies and families experiencing the NICU.