Back to sleep training for nursery room nurses: Does it provide a high level of success in improving knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and intentions to change behavior for those who have participated in training?

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Karen Schenk, RN, BS, Bureau of Genetics and Healthy Childhood, Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, 930 Wildwood, P.O. Box 570, Jefferson City, MO 65102-0570, 573-751-6249, Karen.schenk@dhss.mo.gov, Carrie Warren, MS, SIDS Resources, Inc., 135 W. Monroe, St. Louis, MO 63122, and Linda Bullock, PhD, RN, FAAN, Sinclair School of Nursing, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65109.

Hospital nurses working with healthy newborns are one of the first role models parents encounter. If nurses are advising parents on babies' sleeping position, they need to practice this in the newborn nursery. The value of parents observing consistency between public health messages and practices cannot be underestimated. In October 2000, the Missouri Department of Health contracted a study to determine the standard of care evidenced by Missouri hospitals' policies and practice behaviors of hospital newborn nurses, regarding newborn sleep position. The study confirmed that nurses appear reluctant to fully embrace use of the supine sleep position recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics and they appeared more comfortable with the side-lying position and believed the side-lying position to be as acceptable. Study results demonstrated the need for developing and implementing strategies designed to change knowledge, attitude, and behavior of hospital newborn nursery room nurses on how they place healthy newborns for sleep. The Training was developed in response to this need for targeted information by nurses, identified through the survey to engage in outdated infant care practices in the hospital. The Training proposed that exposing hospital staff to a curriculum based on scientific support of the recommendations would increase knowledge and improve adherence to risk reduction practices. Evaluation of the Training involved analysis of immediate impact of the presentation on participants, as well as longer-term impact on health behaviors and practices. Overall, the findings suggest that the Training has been extremely effective and has met its stated objective.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of this session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

1. Recognize the nurses as role models in working with new parents.
2. Identify the need for consistency between public health messages and hospital practices.
3. Recognize the need for developing and implementing strategies specifically designed to change the knowledge, attitude, and behavior of hospital newborn nursery room nurses in relation to how they place healthy newborns to sleep.
Apply the theory from the Back to Sleep for Nursery Room Nurses Training program as a tool to promote parent compliance with Back to Sleep recommendations through modeling behaviors observed in the hospital and provided as part of the discharge instructions

Keywords: SIDS, Primary Prevention

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation

From Research to Action: Reducing Perinatal Mortality and SIDS Risks in Multiple Settings

The 134th Annual Meeting & Exposition (November 4-8, 2006) of APHA