Paper: A Comparison of Polyethylene Bag and Radiant Warmer on Body Temperature in Term Infants (Sigma Theta Tau International's 21st International Nursing Research Congress)

Tuesday, 13 July 2010

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

Learning Objective 1: create innovation for controlling body temperature of term infants.

Learning Objective 2: have innovation applying to prevent heat loss in case of unavailable of radiant warmer.

Purpose: The purposes of this quasi experimental research were to compare the body temperature of newborn between keeping warm by using polyethylene bag with blanket and placing newborn under radiant warmer.

Methods: A random sampling and random assignment was used to select 60 subjects from full term newborns in the labour room at Ramathibodi Hospital. The subjects were equally devided into two groups. The first group was kept warm by placing under radiant warmer while the second group by using polyethylene bag with blanket on crib. The labour room temperature was controlled at 26 íC or higher.

Results: The results revealed that the everage body temperature of the newborn between two groups were normal during the first 2 hours after birth. However, average decrease of rectal temperature at 30 minute and 60 minute after birth on the group of placing under radiant warmer was significantly lower than those of using polyethylene bag with blanket but then they were not significantly difference between both groups at 90 minutes and 120 minutes after birth. Conclusion: The finding of the study suggested that nurses should control the labour room temperature at higher than 26 íC and keep the newborn warm by using polyethylene bag with blanket at least 2 hours after birth in order to prevent heat loss in case of unavailable of radiant warmer.

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