The Northeast Perinatal Team (NEPT) in northeastern Massachusetts is an active consortium of level 1 & 2 perinatal facilities throughout Massachusetts consisting of perinatal department leadership and educators. It fosters collaboration in care between its members and with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Health Department, along with the Massachusetts section of AWHONN to attain and maintain high standards of care for the perinatal population of the state.

Proposed change:

Members of the Northeast Perinatal Team committed to working with the Department of Public Health in revising and updating the perinatal regulations in 2006 with members attending every subcommittee and full committee meeting on all regulatory revisions to ensure that the regulations were evidence based and used outcome measures for future regulatory changes.

A member of the NEPT now sits on the Department of Health Perinatal Advisory Committee, the Newborn Screening Advisory Committee and the Newborn Hearing Screening Advisory Committee. We continue to seek statewide solutions and approaches for improved perinatal care that meet the individual, collective and cultural needs of our diverse perinatal populations.

Implementation, outcomes and evaluation:

Educational programs are provided regionally to ensure consistent and cost effective on-going education for perinatal staff. In particular we offer regularly scheduled STABLE programs and STABLE Cardiac programs along with annual mother baby conferences aimed at evidence based practice.

We developed a statewide guideline for management of babies under the Safe Haven law in order to reduce the number of abandoned babies in Massachusetts that each hospital individualized as its own. In 2010 we worked with the DPH to construct guidelines statewide for the management of placentas; we participated in and are currently working on state guidelines for drug testing of pregnant mothers and substance exposed newborns as well as the reporting guidelines with the Division of Children & Families.

Implications for nursing practice:

The team remains committed to improving practice through nursing education and collaboration and advocating for our patients at local and state levels.

Nurse members of the NEPT also participate in other statewide collaboratives in perinatal care that advocate for the highest quality perinatal care

Keywords:

Nursing collaboration

Advocacy

Consortium