Evaluation of an Evidence-Based Teaching Program for Newborn Safe Sleep

In infants, sleep related deaths including SIDS, accidental suffocation and strangulation are the leading causes of post-neonatal deaths in the United States.  Educating new mothers about safe sleep practices for their infant is an important opportunity for nurses to use evidence based teaching protocols.  In 2013 an evidence based safe sleep program was implemented on the mother-baby unit at our partner Hospital (Povinelli, Manquen, Wagner,  & Raines). The teaching program was based on a systematic review of the literature and the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendations about sleeping position and environment.  However, in August 2015 Eisenberg et al published a study concluding that mothers commonly reported receiving either no advice or advice different from the AAP guidelines from healthcare providers.   This poster reports the findings of an evaluation study on the effectiveness of our teaching program by focusing on where infant are sleeping and the infant’s sleep position at home in the week following discharge from the hospital setting.

                This is an evaluation study with two data collection points.  The initial data collection point focused on evaluation of the unit’s safe sleep teaching program prior to hospital discharge and the second data collection point was a phone call to evaluation the infant’s sleep position and environment in the home.  A total of 48 mothers completed the initial data collection phase and forty-four (91.6%) completed the post-discharge data collection point.  The findings of this evaluation study demonstrate the effectiveness of this evidence-based teaching program.  Both maternal knowledge, recall of the nurses’ teaching and post-discharge behaviors are evidence of the effectiveness of the teaching program.

Eisenberg, SR; Bair-Merritt, MH; Colson, ER; Heeren, TC; Geller,NL; Corwin, MJ. (2015) Maternal Report of Advice Received for Infant Care. Pediatrics, August, 136 (2).

Povinelli, T., Manquen, D., Wagner, A., & Raines, D. (2014). An Evidence-Based Safe Sleep Teaching Program.  Neonatal Network.  33 (6) 353-355.