Ten Years of Neonatal Intensive Care Adaption to the Infants' Needs: Implementation of a Family-Centered Care Model with Single-Family Rooms in Norway.

Ten years ago, the Neonatal intensive care unit in Drammen, Norway, implemented Single-Family Rooms (SFR), replacing the traditional open bay (OB) unit. Welcoming parents to stay together with their infant 24 h per day, seven days per week, was both challenging and inspiring. The aim of this paper is to describe the implementation of SFR and how they have contributed to a cultural change among the interprofessional staff. Parents want to participate in infant care, but to do so, they need information and supervision from nurses, as well as emotional support. Although SFR protect infants and provide private accommodation for parents, nurses may feel isolated and lack peer support. Our paper describes how we managed to systematically reorganize the nurse's workflow by using a Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle approach. Significant milestones are identified, and the implementation processes are displayed. The continuous parental presence has changed the way we perceive the family as a care recipient and how we involve the parents in daily care. We provide visions for the future with further developments of care adapted to infants' needs by providing neonatal intensive care with parents as equal partners.

Does skin-to-skin contact reduce stress during diaper change in preterm infants?

BACKGROUND: Skin-to-skin contact reduces pain response in preterm infants subjected to minor painful procedures, such as heel lance. Diaper change is a procedure performed several times daily in hospitalized preterm infants. Routine care giving tasks such as diaper change may be stressful for the infant. AIMS: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether diaper change induces stress and if skin-to-skin contact could reduce such stress, measured by changes in skin conductance. STUDY DESIGN: This was a randomized crossover pilot study in 19 preterm infants with gestational age between 28 and 34 weeks. The diaper change procedure was done twice in each infant, once during skin-to-skin contact, and once in incubator or bed with the mother present. OUTCOME MEASURES: During diaper change heart rate (HR), peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO2), and changes in skin conductance (SC) peaks per sec, using the Skin Conductance Algesimeter (SCA), were registered. RESULTS: The mean SC peaks/sec increased/decreased significantly under/after change of diapers which thereby underpins that this is a stressful procedure for the preterm infant. Skin-to-skin contact (SSC) entails significantly lower stress levels (p<0.05) compared to diaper changed in an incubator/bed measured by the SCA. CONCLUSIONS: Diaper change is a stressful procedure for preterm infants and may be ameliorated by skin-to-skin contact.