5. Motivation
During the implementation stage, the
developmental care team raised the idea of staff
nurse motivation. The aims were to increase nursesû awareness and to gain staff nursesû cooperation in
developmental care practice. The strategies used
for motivation consisted of two methods: 1) rewards;
and 2) the progress report of the developmental care
practice.
5.1 Rewards: Rewards were given to those
who followed the developmental care protocol such
as utilising a low level voice while they were
performing their duties. Rewards were the gifts that
staff nurses wanted and proposed to the head nurse.
The rewards helped to motivate the staff nurses to
practice developmental care due to the fact that
they acquire the gifts that they wanted if they
incorporated developmental care into their practice.
The honour rewards were given to the winners
by the head nurse in the wardûs monthly meeting.
5.2 Progress report of developmental care
practice: The developmental care practice was
recorded by the staff nurses who provided developmental
care to the preterm infants and presented to
staff nurses in the wardûs monthly meeting. The
aim was to show the trend of developmental
care practice and to encourage staff nurses to
adhere to it. In addition, the evaluation of the
progress in developmental care practice was
presented on the board in the NICU, so the
participants could monitor their progress in practice.
6. Encouraging regularity of developmental
care practice
The strategies used to stimulate all nurses to
regularly perform developmental care included peer
reminder, posting a quiet sign, role modeling,
screensaver of computers and the developmental care
assessment and record form.
6.1 Peer reminder: During performance of
nursing care for preterm infants, the developmental
care team encouraged the staff members to use
gentle reminders to remind each other to adhere
to developmental care practice. Staff nurses
acknowledged that they should be careful not to
offend their peers and used diplomatic reminders to
encourage developmental care practice.
6.2 Posting a çQUIET PLEASEé sign: The
çQUIET PLEASEé signs were designed to raise
the awareness of staff and visitors regarding
noises in the NICU to ensure their cooperation in
controlling environmental noises. The team designed
the çQUIET PLEASEé sign with an aim to make
it eye-catching with the use of a cartoon to convey
the intended meaning. A cartoon picture of a sleeping
baby was used as a sign. The signs were posted
around the incubators and nursing stations, saying
SHHH, I'M GROWING and QUIET PLEASE,
I'M SLEEPING.