Implementing potentially better practices to support the neurodevelopment of infants in the NICU

The purpose of the Vermont Oxford Neonatal Quality Improvement Collaborative 2005 was to explore improvements related to the physical environment of the newborn intensive care unit (NICU) in order to optimize the neurodevelopmental outcome of newborns.

Five centers were involved in a focus group examining NICU environmental design and its impact on the neurodevelopmental outcome of the neonate. Using an evidence-based approach, the group identified 16 potentially better care practices. This article describes the implementation approaches for some of these practices. The practice areas include tactile stimulation, providing early exposure to mother's scent, minimizing exposure to noxious odors, developing a system for noise assessment of the NICU acoustic environment, minimizing ambient noise in the infants environment, and preservation of sleep.

Approaches to implementation were center specific. Optimizing neurodevelopment of the newborn was the desired goal, but this outcome is difficult to measure with a limited number of subjects over a short study period. Many of the changes although intuitively beneficial are difficult to measure. Education of all participants was considered essential to the process of implementation.

The process of collaborative quality improvement is useful in identifying ways to optimize the physical environment of the NICU to improve the neurodevelopmental outcome of the neonate.