Neonatal Nurses NICU Quality Improvement: Embracing EBP Recommendations to Provide Parent Psychosocial Support.

BACKGROUND: The neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) can be a stressful environment for infants, their families, and the healthcare team. There is an immediate need for neonatal nurses to embrace and translate the new National Perinatal Association recommendations for psychosocial support of NICU parents into clinical practice to demonstrate best practices for infants, their families, and the whole team. PURPOSE: To summarize the current evidence-based practice recommendations and to provide suggestions for team members to develop strategies to adopt and implement them through quality improvement (QI) projects. METHODS: Literature reviews were conducted by the original 6 National Perinatal Association workgroup teams and covered all levels of available evidence (eg, qualitative, quantitative, and clinical research, guidelines, and clinical and parental expertise). Evidence was synthesized to formulate this set of recommendations published in December 2015. We describe their applicability to the vital role of neonatal nurses, while elucidating QI projects that track measurements of change to translate these recommendations into practice. RESULTS: Neonatal nurses are in an ideal position to transform systems of support for NICU parents through the adoption of these recommendations at the bedside, and further to identify areas for QI to enhance implementation. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Neonatal nurses are integral to problem solving and identifying QI strategies for translating these recommendations into NICU clinical practice to improve parent psychosocial support. IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH: This article disseminates evidence and encourages scientific investigation into various methods of supporting emotional health of NICU parents to create better health outcomes.

Implementing evidence-based practice: a mantra for clinical change.

Evidence-based practice (EBP) requires a commitment to adopting innovation to change clinical problems. In perinatal and neonatal care, this commitment involves utilization of current best evidence in decision making about patient care for the benefit of mothers, infants, and their families. Embracing EBP can lead to increased patient and professional outcomes, creating synergy that will be welcomed on all levels. Moving toward EBP in this arena is a challenging goal for perinatal nurses, who may encounter many barriers. This article describes the need for "buy in" from key stakeholders at the bedside and within the infrastructure of the organization. Provided herein are stepwise methods to engage nurses in EBP as well as ideas to promote use of research in a way that every patient receives the right care every time. This article provides an overview of how perinatal and neonatal clinicians can shift their focus to embrace EBP and translate research into practice at the bedside.