Sunday, Sep 26 - Expo Hall Opening
Sunday, Sep 26 - Job Fair
Monday,
Sep 27 - AWHONN's Block Party
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Title: The TOOLS & Trade of Translating LPI Protocol Into PRACTICE
Discipline: Newborn (NB), Advanced Practice (AP)
Learning Objectives:
Submission Description:- Identify two health problems for which the late preterm infant has an increased risk
- List two tools that can be utilize to address the needs of late preterm infants.
- Enumerate the process of developing tools to address the needs of late preterm infants.
TITLE: THE TOOLS & TRADE OF TRANSLATING LPI PROTOCOL INTO PRACTICE
BY: Rosalina Butao, RN, MSN
One of the major Healthy People 2010 thrusts is to considerably trim down the preterm birth rate to 7.6% by the year 2010 from the 11.6% preterm birth rate in 1998 (DHHS, 1999). Nevertheless, the preterm birth rate went up to 12.5% in 2004, which was actually higher than the rate in 1998 (DHHS, 1999). As birth rates for premature infants increase, a large number of these late preterm infants (LPI) get mixed into the pot together with the term infants and are treated and managed the same (Engel, 2006). Engel (2006) further emphasized, that late preterm infants cannot and should not be treated equal as their term infant counterparts. Currently, late preterm infant intervention protocol for hospital care specifically in well baby nurseries are not well defined or not available at all, so a wide range of fragmented care practices exist. In some institutions, late preterm and term infants are treated similarly, whereas in other hospital settings late preterm infants may be admitted directly to neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) until they are discharged from the hospital. Although national organizations such as the Association of Women’s health Obstetrics and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) and other evidence based practice literature established guidelines and explanations of what the physiologic needs of this certain population, in most practice late preterm infants still get mixed into the pot. The significant concern of providing the appropriate level of care and observation for preterm infant’s at all gestational ages has become an important conversation among the neonatal healthcare practitioners. Hence, the purpose of this project is to assist the nurses in providing the appropriate level of care for late preterm infants in a well baby nursery by developing an LPI Process Algorithm and Physician Standing Order. The LPI Process Algorithm and Physician Standing Order in a Well Baby Nursery became significant tools for nurses, practitioners and neonatologist in the effective and appropriate provision of care and observation of late preterm infants in a well baby nursery setting.
