Crossing the Nursing Research Finish Line, One Subject at a Time: Retaining Late Preterm Infants and Their Mothers In the AWHONN Late Preterm Infant Research Project

Purpose for the program: To describe how nurses were supported to enroll and retain research subjects in the AWHONN Late Preterm Infant (LPI) Research –Based Practice Project.  Both late preterm infants and their mothers were study participants who needed special strategies to be retained in the study as they transferred from one nursing unit to another.

Proposed change: N/A

Implementation, outcomes and evaluation: Bedside nurses, nurse practitioners, lactation specialists, and managers working in Labor and Delivery, Mother-Baby, and in NICU units implemented AWHONN’s Evidence-Based Practice Guidelines for the LPI.  Nurses consented patients, collected patient data, and provided care and maternal education for LPI’s during the 6 month study duration. The site-specific LPI study team designed many tactics to engage nurses and retain study subjects. Strategies included dynamic marketing, varied education and awareness approaches, and daily support by a designated project leader. Maternal subject retention was 156, and neonatal study subjects equaled 135 late preterm infants

Implications for nursing practice: Nurses, in a variety of roles, are key to the success of enrolling and retaining study participants.  Staff participation in EBP implementation and in nursing research is both challenging and rewarding. Changing nursing culture so that advanced practice nurses and bedside nurses support and contribute to evidence-based practice is an ongoing commitment to be held by organizations and individual nurses.

Keywords: EBP, stakeholders, awareness, bedside nurse researcher, unit-unit transfers, Late Preterm Infant