Background:Advancements in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) science and technology have increased the survival rate of preterm infants. Despite these advances, they are still facing with neurobehavioral problems. Noise level in NICU is a potential source of stress for preterm infants. It should be decreased to the standard level as much as possible. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of peer education on the performance of staff in noise management in the NICU.Materials and Methods:A pre-post test quasi-experimental design was used. Fifty-eight staff members (nurses and physicians) participated in this study. Sound pressure levels were measured before and after the intervention. Peer education program formed the intervention. The staff performance in noise management was evaluated before and after the intervention by using a questionnaire. Data analysis was done by using t-test.Results:The results of the study showed that the mean sound level in different environments significantly decreased after the intervention. It reached from 86.7 to 74.9 dB in the center of unit and from 68.2 to 48.50 dB in the infants' bedside (P < 0.0001). The mean score of the staff performance in noise management significantly increased after the intervention, compared to the pre-intervention score. It increased from 74.6 to 83.4 (P < 0.0001).Conclusions:Peer education was found to be successful in noise management because behavioral changes were done to avoid generating unnecessary noise by the staff.

BACKGROUND: Infertility, a problematic issue to the newly married couples, should be treated as no couple should be deprived of having children. The treatment, however, poses new challenges to the multiples and subsequent preterm births, health system, and families. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the effect of an education–support–follow-up program on the mothers’ perceptions of their multiples’ needs. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This research is a three-phase interventional study. The first phase develops an educational program through review of the literature and using the opinions of experts. In the second phase, the developed program will be implemented in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for the mothers of multiples. In the third phase, based on the developed plan, the required support will be applied and followed up. The data collection tool is a researcher-made questionnaire which is completed by the mothers ( N = 30) before and after the intervention. Convenience sampling method will be used, and the mothers will be allocated randomly. Data gathering started from September 2020 and would continue until the sample collection is completed. Data will be analyzed through the descriptive and analytical statistics with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21. RESULTS: The present study can address the needs of the multiple infants based on the implementation of an education–support–follow-up program for mothers and their families. CONCLUSION: The mothers of multiple infants are required to specify unique physical and developmental needs of their infants, while their perceptions of these needs may be different based on the education–support–follow-up program. The researchers designed the program to help them define highly specialized needs of multiples and also examined their perceptions of these needs.