Supporting Parent and Infant Transition from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to Infant Clinic Follow-Up

Danhof, Haley

Work

Supporting Parent and Infant Transition from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to Infant Clinic Follow-Up

Public Deposited

MLA citation style (9th ed.)

Danhof, Haley. Supporting Parent and Infant Transition From the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to Infant Clinic Follow-up. Dale, Lucinda.University of Indianapolis. 5120. uindy.hykucommons.org/concern/generic_works/19a42540-01b3-4e42-a7bd-2a53c7687101.

APA citation style (7th ed.)

D. Haley. (5120). Supporting Parent and Infant Transition from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to Infant Clinic Follow-Up. https://uindy.hykucommons.org/concern/generic_works/19a42540-01b3-4e42-a7bd-2a53c7687101

Chicago citation style (CMOS 17, author-date)

Danhof, Haley. Supporting Parent and Infant Transition From the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to Infant Clinic Follow-Up. University of Indianapolis. 5120. https://uindy.hykucommons.org/concern/generic_works/19a42540-01b3-4e42-a7bd-2a53c7687101.

Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.

Follow-up care for infants after discharge from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is essential as infants who have had a stay in the NICU are at an increased risk of having developmental delays. Infants have improved long-term outcomes if early intervention services are provided in the first year of life. A common problem in NICU follow-up clinics is high no-show rates, resulting in a gap in developmental care for infants with serious medical needs. The occupational therapy doctoral capstone student identified barriers that parents living in a metropolitan area, with diverse cultural backgrounds, faced in accessing and receiving developmental care for their infants. Common barriers included: limited understanding of the details of the Infant Clinic appointment, complete lack of knowledge about the existence of the Infant Clinic appointment and confusing the Infant Clinic appointment, with the well-child primary care visit after NICU discharge. In order to reduce these barriers and to streamline the process from NICU discharge to outpatient occupational and speech therapy follow-up at the Infant Clinic, several strategies were put into place. These strategies included: increased education and reiteration of importance of attending the Infant Clinic appointment by NICU
staff, development of educational materials about the Infant Clinic written at appropriate reading levels in order to comply with health literacy guidelines, development of incentives to increase parent motivation to attend the appointment, and increased interdisciplinary collaboration between NICU staff and Infant Clinic staff in order to improve continuity of care across the two settings.

Creator