Safety Barriers

Surrounding
Kangaroo Care
of Neonates in
the NICU
Hannah Dion, Nursing
Ashley Weber, College of
Nursing
 Background

•Key Terms
• NICU: neonatal intensive care unit
• Kangaroo Care (KC)
•Goal
• Address common barriers to prolonged KC and evaluate the use of KC
devices in clinical setting
KC benefits

Benefit to Parents Benefit to Infant

Improved Improved respiratory/CV
bonding/attachment function

Improved mental health Thermoregulation

Brain development
Motivation
Research has shown the benefits, why is long
duration KC still not standard of care?
Methods
• Secondary data
analysis (original
survey from Phaidra)

• Received 148
responses from nurses,
NPs, physicians,
midwives, LCs,
administrators,
therapists, and parents

• Survey responses
analyzed using Stata
 Knowledge of Kangaroo Care (n)

Expert
[PERCENT
AGE]
Comfortably
Knowledgea
ble
[PERCENTA
GE]
Results
Coomfortably Knowledgeable (62)
Expert
Results
• KC is standard
practice for most
respondents during
golden hour after
vaginal birth
• 29% standard
after c-section

• The ability to hold

intubated infants is
rare

• 24% of respondents
state the ability to
hold multiples
simultaneously
Results
Results

Frequency (n) Percentages (%)

 Use of KC Device (n)
Hospital provides product (22) No device (35)
Parents encouraged to purchase device (1) No policy (67)
Don't know (17)

[PERCENTAGE] [PERCENTAGE]

[PERCENTAGE]
[PERCENTAGE]

Results
[PERCENTAGE]
 Results
Most common barriers
according to respondents
1. Risk of dislodging
medical equipment
2. Parents unwillingness to
hold
3. Strict definition of
“Stability” preventing KC
4. Lack of parent/staff
education
5. Dissatisfaction of staff
 Results
• Regarding KC devices:
• A device can be safely
used to keep infants
warm during a power
interruption
• Safety of KC is improved
• Length of KC time is
increased
 Conclusions
• Respondents have a
positive view of KC,
understand the benefits
• Hospitals do not have the
supplies, education,
policies to support long
durations of KC
• Goal
• KC barriers will be
addressed by hospitals
to improve practice
Future Work
• KC with less
hemodynamically
stable infants
• Safety of KC,
incidence of
adverse events
• Policy
implementation
Acknowledgements

• Survey respondents
• Financial Support
• WISE
• IRB #2020-0866
Impact of
WISE • Support group of
likeminded young women
• Future plans
– Continue research in Weber lab
– Naval officer upon graduation
Questions?