1. Providing knowledge and practice skills
The developmental care team provided knowledge
and skills to all staff nurses who worked in
the NICU. The strategies used for improving nursesû
knowledge and skills consisted of two methods:
conference and workshop.
1.1 Conference: The conference was used
as a main method to increase staff knowledge
because it was the most feasible and appropriate
that allowed all of the 22 other staff nurses
including practical nurses to participate. The
educational contents were composed of the
importance of delivering developmental care, the
impact of the NICU environment for preterm
infants, Alsû synactive theory of development,
research studies related to developmental care,
and how to bring it back to practice in the setting.
The physician residents who provided care in the
NICU also attended the educational sessions.
1.2 Workshop: The workshop was set up
after the lecture session in the afternoon for
everyone to practice positioning and nestling. This
was achieved by the demonstration and return
demonstration by the developmental care team. All
staff nurses had a chance to practice and the team
provided suggestions for the correct techniques. The
return demonstration reassured that all staff nurses
positioned and nestled the infants correctly.
By doing this, the staff nurse could perform
developmental care with confidence. The participants
stated that they gained more knowledge regarding
developmental care and learned how to implement
developmental care in their own practices. The head
nurse also gave opinion that staff nurses were very
enthusiastic about performing developmental care
in the ward. They actively worked to change unit
routines of their own care-giving practices to
provide care that provided supportive development.
Knowledge and skills could enhance nursesû confidence and power in making decisions about
developmental care practice. These are prerequisites
to nursing autonomy. Equally important was the
fact that the participants mentioned that they were
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Enhancing Nursing Practice in Developmental Care for Preterm Infants
Thai J Nurs Res ë April-June 2008
now able to communicate the developmental care
practices to other disciplines within the hospital.
They said they would suggest to medical teams to
be quiet on their respective rounds. Moreover, they
dared to negotiate with the medical residents
requesting them to perform unnecessary procedures
at other times and to not disturb the rest period of
the infants.