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Background: Preterm infants have oral feeding difficulty that often delays discharge, indicating a need for evidence-based interventions for oral–motor development. Purpose: To test the Premature Infant Oral Motor Intervention (PIOMI) on the development of oral–motor function, feeding, and anthropometric outcomes using sucking manometry. Methods: A single-blind randomized experimental design was conducted with a sample of 60 preterm infants from 2 neonatal intensive care units between May 2019 and March 2020. The experimental group received PIOMI for 5 min/d for 14 consecutive days. Sucking capacity, anthropometrics (weight and head circumference), bottle feeding, breast/chest feeding initiation, and length of hospital stay were measured. The Yakut Sucking Manometer (PCT/TR2019/050678) was developed specifically for this study and tested for the first time. Results: The experimental group had a statistically significant percent increase over controls in sucking power (69%), continuous sucking before releasing the bottle (16%), sucking time (13%), and sucking amount (12%) with partial η2 values of interaction between the groups of 0.692, 0.164, 0.136, and 0.121, respectively. The experimental group had a higher increase in weight (89%) and head circumference (81%) over controls (F = 485.130, P < .001; F = 254.754, P < .001, respectively). The experimental group transitioned to oral feeding 9.9 days earlier than controls (t = −2.822; P = .007), started breast/chest feeding 10.8 days earlier (t = 3.016; P = .004), and were discharged 3.0 days earlier. Implications for Research/Practice: The PIOMI had a significant positive effect on anthropometrics, sucking capacity, readiness to initiate bottle and breast/chest feeding, and a 3-day reduction in length of hospital stay.

The most basic tool enabling nurses to reach the individuals they care for is the skill and knowledge of communication. This skill becomes more important in critical settings such as intensive care units. The present study was conducted in a descriptive design to evaluate the communication skills of intensive care nurses. The study was conducted between January-March 2018 with 260 nurses who worked at the intensive care units of four hospitals in the Southeastern Anatolia Region. The Nurse Descriptive Characteristics Form and The Communication Skills Evaluation Scale were used to collect the study data. It was found that 68.1% of the participants had undergraduate or higher educational status, and 56.2% received training on communication skills in the last year. The communication skills of the nurses who had undergraduate and higher educational status were better than those with high school degrees. It was also found that the communication skills of the nurses who received communication training in the last year were higher than those who did not. In line with the results obtained in the present study, it is recommended to organize and sustain in-service training programs to improve communication skills of nurses, to evaluate communication skills at regular intervals, to identify communication difficulties in intensive care units, and to take measures regarding this aspect.