An Evidence-Based Infant Safe Sleep Program to Reduce Sudden Unexplained Infant Deaths

Abstract

A multifaceted safe sleep program offers many benefits to both the NICU and its patients. The implementation of a standardized safe sleep program provides an enormous opportunity to improve the health and well-being of the community. All hospitals that care for mothers and infants should adopt a safe sleep program.

Barriers to and Interventions that Increase Nurses’ and Parents’ Compliance With Safe Sleep Recommendations for Preterm Infants

“…Authors of three of these five studies (Gelfer et al, 2013;Hwang, O'Sullivan, et al, 2015;McMullen et al, 2016) used an online continuing education program offered by NICHD about reducing the risk of SIDS and other causes of sleep-related infant death based on the most recent recommendations from the AAP (NICHD, NIH, & USDHHS, 2015). In two studies, researchers used mandatory in-service staff education sessions to present the material (Voos et al, 2015;Zachritz et al, 2016), and results from these studies showed an increase in safe sleep compliance among neonatal nurses caring for premature infants after the educational intervention. In another study, researchers looked at nurses' attitudes related to SIDS and found that only 53% of neonatal nurses agreed that risk-reduction strategies make a difference in SIDS prevention (Barsman et al, 2015).…”

“…Nursing education was often reinforced with question-andanswer sessions or follow-up e-mails reviewing the most frequently asked questions (Gelfer et al, 2013;Voos et al, 2015). Hwang, O'Sullivan, et al (2015), McMullen et al (2016, and Zachritz et al (2016) reinforced initial education with bedside teaching sessions by task force members while performing crib audits to ensure compliance. One study found that safe sleep compliance after the initial nursing education was less than 75% (McMullen et al, 2016).…”

“…However, not all hospital units have current unit policies that address safe sleep. In half of the studies, authors showed that the presence of a current hospital policy addressing safe sleep contributed to an increase in neonatal nurses' compliance with safe sleep strategies for hospitalized premature infants (Barsman et al, 2015;McMullen, Wu, Austin-Ketch, & Carey, 2014;Voos, Terreros, Larimore, Leick-Rude, & Park, 2015;Zachritz, Fulmer, & Chaney, 2016). One study found that in a hospital with a safe sleep policy, all infants were transitioned to supine sleep before discharge, versus only 68% of infants being transitioned to supine sleep before discharge in a hospital without a safe sleep policy .…”

“…Authors of one study showed that 50% of neonatal nurses strongly believed that hospital policies should be followed regardless of their own personal views of the efficacy of SIDS prevention (Barsman et al, 2015). Two studies involved quality improvement projects that included changes in hospital policy and new unit-based guidelines regarding safe sleep, and researchers reported a significant increase in safe sleep compliance among nurses (Voos et al, 2015;Zachritz et al, 2016).…”

“…As a group, 71% of nurses preferred to receive SIDS risk-reduction education in an online format (Barsman et al, 2015). In half of the studies in this review, researchers described quality improvement initiatives involving neonatal nursing education programs to improve nursing knowledge and practice related to safe sleep for premature infants (Gelfer et al, 2013;Hwang, Lu, et al, 2015;McMullen et al, 2016;Voos et al, 2015;Zachritz et al,…”