Objective: to describe the main evidence available in the literature on safe practices in the prevention and care of skin lesions in newborns admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Units. Methods: integrative literature review in the PubMed, BDENF, LILACS, MEDLINE, SciELO and Cochrane Library databases between 2013 and 2018. We included primary articles on: lesion prevention and skin care in newborns in Portuguese, English or Spanish and excluded editorials, thesis, dissertations and duplicate articles. For the evidence level, we used the Melnyk and Fineout-Overholt classification, which classifies studies between weak to strong evidence. Results: a total of 10 articles with moderate to weak evidence on thermoregulation, bathing, lesion prevention, use of patches and skin antisepsis. Final considerations: there was a shortage of publications with high evidence, and it is necessary to invest in research that seeks to support safer skin care practices.

Background Nursing checklists have been shown to improve communication, reduce the occurrence of adverse events, and promote safe, quality care in different care settings. However, to date, there is no validated patient care safety checklist for nurses caring for infants in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU). Aim To describe development and content validation of the “Safe Nursing Care Checklist for Infants Hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit”. Study Design Online Survey. Methods Based upon an integrative literature review, we developed a checklist focused on safe nursing care for infants in the NICU. Nursing experts participated in three rounds of a content validation process where they rated the items online. An agreement level ≥0.90 was required for inclusion in the checklist. Forty‐ three expert nurses with experience working in the NICU and who were certified in neonatal nursing or had a master's or doctoratal degree in child health provided content validation of the patient care checklist. Results The final checklist contained 45 items with content validation index scores greater than 90%. The instrument was structured into six dimensions including patient identification, effective communication, medication safety, infection prevention, fall prevention, and pressure injuries/skin injuries prevention. Conclusion Content validity was established for the “Safe Nursing Care Checklist for Infants Hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit” which can identify strengths and weaknesses in safe nursing care for infants in the NICU as well as direct educational interventions to promote nursing care based on scientific evidence. Relevance to Clinical Practice This checklist can potentially be used by bedside nurses to promote provision of safe care to infants in the NICU and to guide corrective strategies and encourage evidence‐based decision‐making. Validation in the clinical setting is needed.