TY - JOUR
T1 - A Community Hospital NICU Developmental Care Partner Program
T2 - Feasibility and Association with Decreased Nurse Burnout Without Increased Infant Infection Rates
AU - Clubbs, Brooke Hildebrand
AU - Barnette, Alan R.
AU - Gray, Natallia
AU - Weiner, Lauren
AU - Bond, April
AU - Harden, Jane
AU - Pineda, Roberta
N1 - Funding Information:
Clubbs) and Economics (Dr Gray), Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau; Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Saint Francis Medical Center, Cape Girardeau, Missouri (Dr Barnette and Mss Bond and Harden); Department of Communication, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Dr Weiner); and Program in Occupational Therapy, Department of Pediatrics, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri (Dr Pineda). Funding to start the original NICU volunteer program was provided by a mini-grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health. The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Supplemental digital content is available for this article. Direct URL citations appear in the printed text and are provided in the HTML and PDF versions of this article on the journal’s Web site ( www.advancesinneonatalcare.org). Correspondence: Brooke Hildebrand Clubbs, MFA, MS, Southeast Missouri State University, 1 University Plaza, MS#3225, Cape Girardeau, MO 63701 ( bclubbs@semo.edu ). Copyright © 2019 by The National Association of Neonatal Nurses
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 by The National Association of Neonatal Nurses.
PY - 2019/8/1
Y1 - 2019/8/1
N2 - Background: Volunteers can provide staff-directed sensory inputs to infants hospitalized in the NICU, but research on volunteer programs is limited. Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility of a developmental care partner (DCP) program in a level III NICU and determine its relationship with provider burnout and infant infection rates. Methods: DCPs were trained to provide sensory input to infants, based on the behavioral cues observed by the occupational therapists and nursing staff, in medically stable infants. Feasibility was assessed by documenting the process of training and utilizing volunteers, as well as tracking duration and frequency of DCP visits. Staff burnout measures were assessed using the Maslach Burnout Inventory Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) before and after implementation. Infant infection rates before and after the introduction of volunteers were compared. Results: Seventy-Two volunteers were interested, and 25 (35%) completed the DCP competencies and provided sensory exposures to 54 neonates, who were visited an average of 8 times (range 1-15). Twelve (48%) DCPs did once-per-week visits, and 9 (36%) did at least 50 contact hours. MBI-HSS scores for staff emotional exhaustion (P <.001) and depersonalization (P <.006) were lower after DCP implementation. There were no differences in infant infection rates before and after DCP implementation (Fisher exact P = 1.000). Implications for Practice: Volunteer-based DCP programs may be feasible to implement in community hospitals and could help reduce staff emotional exhaustion and depersonalization without increasing the incidence of infant infections. Implications for Research: Future research on NICU volunteer programs with larger sample sizes and different infant populations is warranted.
AB - Background: Volunteers can provide staff-directed sensory inputs to infants hospitalized in the NICU, but research on volunteer programs is limited. Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility of a developmental care partner (DCP) program in a level III NICU and determine its relationship with provider burnout and infant infection rates. Methods: DCPs were trained to provide sensory input to infants, based on the behavioral cues observed by the occupational therapists and nursing staff, in medically stable infants. Feasibility was assessed by documenting the process of training and utilizing volunteers, as well as tracking duration and frequency of DCP visits. Staff burnout measures were assessed using the Maslach Burnout Inventory Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) before and after implementation. Infant infection rates before and after the introduction of volunteers were compared. Results: Seventy-Two volunteers were interested, and 25 (35%) completed the DCP competencies and provided sensory exposures to 54 neonates, who were visited an average of 8 times (range 1-15). Twelve (48%) DCPs did once-per-week visits, and 9 (36%) did at least 50 contact hours. MBI-HSS scores for staff emotional exhaustion (P <.001) and depersonalization (P <.006) were lower after DCP implementation. There were no differences in infant infection rates before and after DCP implementation (Fisher exact P = 1.000). Implications for Practice: Volunteer-based DCP programs may be feasible to implement in community hospitals and could help reduce staff emotional exhaustion and depersonalization without increasing the incidence of infant infections. Implications for Research: Future research on NICU volunteer programs with larger sample sizes and different infant populations is warranted.
KW - NICU
KW - burnout
KW - developmental care
KW - feasibility
KW - infection
KW - volunteers
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85069155028&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1097/ANC.0000000000000600
DO - 10.1097/ANC.0000000000000600
M3 - Article
C2 - 30893098
AN - SCOPUS:85069155028
VL - 19
SP - 311
EP - 320
JO - Advances in Neonatal Care
JF - Advances in Neonatal Care
SN - 1536-0903
IS - 4
ER -