Late preterm infants (34 to 36 completed weeks gestation) have a higher rate of post-discharge re-hospitalization and illness than full term infants. Late preterm newborns are an increasing population. In the United States, late preterm infants account for 6.4 – 8.5% of all births. At our community teaching hospital the rate of late preterm newborns admitted to the full term newborn nursery has risen to 8.4%. Before the implementation of this project, they were often treated with the standard plan of care used for full term newborns.  Recognizing that the late preterm newborn’s risk was similar to the premature newborn (respiratory distress, hyperbilirubinemia, feeding problems, and neurodevelopmental delays), a group of seven mother-baby nurses formed an evidence-based practice (EBP) project team to review published, peer-reviewed literature on this topic. The purpose of this project was to investigate whether the implementation of a plan of care (that included policy changes) and education (parent and nurse) would result in less late preterm instability. The Johns Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice Model guided the nursing team through the EBP process. The team identified the best nursing practices for providing care to the late preterm newborn cared for on a mother-baby unit. AWHONN’s “Late Preterm (Near-Term) Infant Assessment Guide” served as the foundation for our practice changes. Based on the literature, the translation strategies included changes to policies, the development of a plan of care specific to the needs of the late preterm infant, specialized parent education, and education for bedside clinicians caring for our mother-newborn couplets.  Nursing staff education included a mandatory instructor-led in-service addressing the risk factors of the late preterm newborn and nursing care strategies to prevent and manage risk factors, introduction to the plan of care, unit-based policy changes to support the care of the late preterm newborn, and parent education. A comparative descriptive design was used to evaluate change in practice and patient outcomes before and after nurse education and implementation of the plan of care. Data were extracted by retrospective chart review. 100 medical records were reviewed including 50 patients in the “before” group and 50 patient in the “after” group. Chi-square analysis determined significant differences in nursing practice after implementation of the plan of care and education (p<0.002) based on frequency of assessment of temperature, respiration, heart rate and transcutaneous bilirubin. Through this process the amount of weight loss was decreased in late preterm infants with a plan of care (-71 g) versus without a plan of care (-148 g; p<0.05). At present, the overall implementation of the individualized plan of care is 58%. Realizing that translation of research into practice takes time, the team recently developed a plan to prompt nurses to initiate and follow the plan of care.  The team will audit this data in early 2009. Connecting the heart and science of caring enables mother-baby nurses to improve the outcomes of the late preterm newborns.