| Sunday, November 4, 2007: 8:15 AM-9:30 AM | |||
| Improving Outcomes of Preterms and Parents with the COPE Program: Explanatory Effects, Cost Outcomes and Implementation Strategies | |||
| Learning Objective #1: Describe the mechanisms through which the COPE program positively impacts outcomes for parents and low-birth-weight premature infants. | |||
| Learning Objective #2: Discuss the cost savings associated with the COPE program and strategies for routine implementation with parents of preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit. | |||
| More than 480,000 premature babies are born every year in the United States. Although advances in technology have allowed greater numbers of infants to survive, morbidity remains high and imposes great emotional and financial burdens to families, society, and the health care system. Evidence has accumulated to support that low birth weight (LBW) premature infants experience a host of adverse physical and behavioral problems, and that their parents experience adverse mental health outcomes and dysfunctional interactions with their infants. Despite these adverse outcomes for families, there has been a paucity of theory-based, parent-focused, reproducible intervention programs initiated early in the NICU stay to reduce parental stress and empower parents to develop healthy perceptions of and interaction patterns with their premature infants, before sustained adverse outcomes occur. The purpose of this symposium is to describe an evidence-based, educational-behavioral intervention program (COPE=Creating Opportunities for Parent Empowerment) for delivery to parents of LBW premature infants in the neonatal intensive care unit and the mechanisms through which the program works to positively impact parent and infant outcomes, through 2 months corrected age. Cost savings associated with the COPE program will be discussed. Finally, strategies for routine implementation of COPE in NICUs will be highlighted so that all families of preterms can benefit from the routine adoption of the theory-based reproducible program. | |||
| Symposium Organizer: | Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP, FAAN | ||
| Symposium Presenters: | Nancy Fischbeck Feinstein, RNC, PhD Eileen K. Fairbanks, MS, RN, PNP Linda Alpert-Gillis, PhD Hugh Crean, PhD Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP, FAAN | ||
| 174 | Maternal Anxiety and Depression Following a Premature Infants' Discharge from the NICU: An Integrative Model of the COPE Program Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP, FAAN, Nancy Fischbeck Feinstein, RNC, PhD, Eileen K. Fairbanks, MS, RN, PNP, Linda Alpert-Gillis, PhD, Hugh Crean, PhD | ||
| 175 | The COPE NICU Program for Parents and Preterm Infants: Direct Healthcare NICU Costs and Savings Nancy Fischbeck Feinstein, PhD, Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP, FAAN, Hugh Crean, PhD, Eileen K. Fairbanks, MS, RN, PNP | ||
| 176 | Translating the COPE Program Into Clinical Practice: The Challenges of Research Implementation Eileen K. Fairbanks, MS, RN, PNP, Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP, FAAN, Nancy Fischbeck Feinstein, RNC, PhD, Hugh Crean, PhD | ||