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The Effect of Clinical Nursing Practice Guideline for Preventing Neonatal Hypothermia on Body Temperature of Newborns

Tuesday, 13 July 2010

Nitaya Rotjananirunkit, RN, MNS
Piyaporn Punyavachira, RN, MNS
Department of nursing, Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand

Learning Objective 1: assess body temperature of newborns within 2 hours after birth.

Learning Objective 2: gain the knowledge of clinical nursing practice guidelines for preventing neonatal hypothermia.

Purpose: The purpose of  this study was to compare body temperature of newborns between the group using clinical nursing practice guideline for prevention of  neonatal hypothermia and the group receiving usual nursing care.

Methods: The sample consisted of 60 normal newborns who were born at the delivery room, Ramathibodi Hospital in October 2007. The sample was assigned into the control group and the experimental group. The control group consisted of 30 newborns receiving usual nursing care and the experimental group consisted of 30 newborns receiving nursing care based on clinical nursing practice guideline for preventing neonatal hypothermia.

Results: The results showed that the mean body temperature measured by a rectal thermometer in the experimental group at 10, 30, 60, 90, and 120 minutes after birth were significantly higher than those of the control group. However, the mean body temperature in each group was significantly different over time. The mean body temperature of each group slightly decreased at 30 and 60 minutes after birth, but slightly increased until closed to the body temperature at 10 minutes after birth when 120 minutes elapsed. Conclusion: This study suggests that the CNPG is helpful for nurse-midwives to prevent hypothermia in newborns. However, this CNPG may be adjusted to suit the context appropriately.

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