Supporting Feeding of Late Preterm Infants in the Hospital: A Quality Improvement Project

Feeding difficulty is the most common cause of delayed hospital discharge and readmission of late preterm infants. Frequent and adequate feedings from birth are protective against dehydration, hypoglycemia, and jaundice. The National Perinatal Association's feeding guidelines provide the foundation for late preterm infant standards of care. Feeding at least every 3 hours promotes nutritional status and neurologic development. One feeding assessment every 12 hours during the hospital stay can ensure quality of infant feeding.

At a large urban hospital, medical record reviews were completed to evaluate nursing care practices consistent with the hospital's late preterm infant care standard policy. Feeding frequency and nurse assessment of feeding effectiveness were far below acceptable targets. A quality improvement team was formed to address inconsistency with expected practice.

The project included an investigation using the define, design, implement, and sustain method of quality improvement. Parent education, nurse education, and visual cues were developed to sustain enhanced nursing practice.

Late preterm infants who received feedings at least every 3 hours increased from 2.5% (1 of 40) to 27% (11 of 40); (M = 0.275, SD = 0.446), p = 0.001. Documented breastfeeding assessments increased from 2% (5 of 264) to 8% (10 of 126), p = 0.001. Documented bottle-feeding assessments increased from 15% (39 of 264) to 31% (53 of 172), p < 0.001. Intervention time was cut short due to reprioritization of efforts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Interventions and implementation of this process improvement is easy to replicate through attainable and sustainable goals directed toward improved outcomes for late preterm infants.