Premature infants hospitalized for extended periods in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) may experience negative impacts on growth and development due to stress from the external environment. Developmentally Supportive Care (DSC) is an integrate...
Premature infants hospitalized for extended periods in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) may experience negative impacts on growth and development due to stress from the external environment. Developmentally Supportive Care (DSC) is an integrated nursing strategy aimed at protecting the neurodevelopment of premature infants and promoting their growth and development. However, in South Korea, the lack of sufficient evidence-based practice guidelines poses challenges for the effective application of DSC in clinical settings. Therefore, through an adaptation process, this study developed Korean version practice guidelines, targeting NICU nurses who provide developmentally supportive care for premature infants. The study then evaluated the application of these guidelines in clinical practice.
These evidence-based practice guidelines were established based on the ACE Star Model and the methodology for adapting nursing practice guidelines. According to the research procedure, key questions were determined, and practice guidelines were identified and selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Eight practice guidelines were selected and evaluated for quality using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE II) tool. Additionally, an external review was conducted by a panel of experts to assess the appropriateness and applicability of the guidelines, as well as their feasibility for implementation. The expert panel comprised professionals closely involved in clinical practice, including a pediatric nursing professor, pediatrician, NICU head nurse, pediatric advanced practice nurse, NICU charge nurse, NICU developmental care nurse, and NICU education nurse. The final practice guidelines comprised eight major domains—therapeutic environment, collaboration with families, positioning and handling, sleep protection, stress and pain minimization, skin protection, nutritional optimization, and education—as well as 23 subdomains, resulting in a total of 264 recommendations.
The education program for the practical application of these evidence-based practice guidelines was structured as a four-session course, conducted once a week for four weeks. A single-group pre-post design was employed, and the effects of the education on NICU nurses’ knowledge of DSC, attitudes toward DSC, and performance of DSC were evaluated before and after training. The study participants were 23 nurses working in five NICUs. To accommodate the schedules of shift-working nurses, education was delivered online for 60 min once a week and divided into three time slots. Data collected through online surveys were analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test.
The results showed that NICU nurses who participated in the education program exhibited statistically significant post-education improvements in knowledge of DSC (Z=-2.37, p=.018), attitudes toward DSC (Z=-3.07, p=.002), and performance of DSC (Z=-3.26, p=.001). Additionally, the education satisfaction score was high at 4.58±0.43 out of 5, indicating that the training was perceived as useful and beneficial for clinical application.
This study is significant in that it developed evidence-based practice guidelines for developmentally supportive care of premature infants through the methodology for adapting nursing practice guidelines. These guidelines provide NICU nurses with a specific and systematic framework for delivering developmentally supportive care for premature infants and provide a foundational resource for implementing DSC consistently and in a standardized manner across all NICUs in South Korea.