Acta paediatrica
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Comparative Study
Skin-to-skin care in neonatal intensive care units in the Nordic countries: a survey of attitudes and practices.
To investigate the application of skin-to-skin care (SSC) in the Nordic countries, the existence of guidelines for SSC and the attitudes of neonatal staff towards SSC. ⋯ Skin-to-skin care is implemented in all Nordic neonatal units, but offered to various degrees, to various populations and to varying extents. Danish, Norwegian and Swedish units are offering SSC more extensively than units in Finland and Iceland.
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In this paper, we highlight the need for acknowledging the importance and impact of both physical and emotional closeness between the preterm infant and parent in the neonatal intensive care unit. Physical closeness refers to being spatially close and emotional closeness to parental feelings of being emotionally connected to the infant (experiencing feelings of love, warmth and affection). Through consideration of the literature in this area, we outline some of the reasons why physical closeness and emotional closeness are crucial to the physical, emotional and social well-being of both the infant and the parent. These include positive effects on infant brain development, parent psychological well-being and on the parent-infant relationship. The influence of the neonatal unit environment and culture on physical and emotional closeness is also discussed. ⋯ Culturally sensitive care practices, procedures and the physical environment need to be considered to facilitate parent-infant closeness, such as through early and prolonged skin-to-skin contact, family-centred care, increased visiting hours, family rooms and optimization of the space on the units. Further research is required to explore factors that facilitate both physical and emotional closeness to ensure that parent-infant closeness is a priority within neonatal care.
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Multicenter Study
Do parents understand the medical information provided in paediatric emergency departments? A prospective multicenter study.
We evaluated the extent to which parents understood the medical information about hospitalization of their child in an emergency department and looked for characteristics likely to increase the risk of poor comprehension. ⋯ This study shows that improvements are required in the clarity of the information delivered to the parents. The assistance of nurses and optimal pain management may help to improve communication.
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To investigate the sodium composition of maintenance intravenous fluids (mIVF) used by paediatric residents throughout the United States in common clinical scenarios of arginine vasopressin (AVP) excess. ⋯ The majority of US paediatric residents would prescribe hypotonic mIVF in disease states associated with AVP excess. However, a significant number of residents are using isotonic mIVF. Isotonic fluids are more likely to be prescribed in older children and children with meningitis.
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We investigated whether plasma lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) predicts outcome in hypothermia (HT)-treated term infants with moderate/severe hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE) and additionally whether LDH differs between infants with evidence for acute and nonacute perinatal insults and postnatal collapse (PNC). ⋯ THESE results offer a biomarker, with high negative predictive value in the assessment of outcome in HT-treated term infants, needing prospective validation.