Advances in neonatal care : official journal of the National Association of Neonatal Nurses
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Comparative Study
Comparison of neonatal skin sensor temperatures with axillary temperature: does skin sensor placement really matter?
Appropriate thermoregulation affects both morbidity and mortality in the neonatal setting. Nurses rely on information from temperature sensors and radiant warmers or incubators to appropriately maintain a neonate's body temperature. Skin temperature sensors must be repositioned to prevent skin irritation and breakdown. This study addresses whether there is a significant difference between skin sensor temperature readings from 3 locations on the neonate and whether there is a significant difference between skin sensor temperatures compared with digital axillary temperatures. ⋯ For hemodynamically stable neonates in a supine position, there were no significant differences between skin sensor temperatures on abdomen, flank, or axilla or between skin sensor temperatures and a digital axillary temperature. This may increase nurses' confidence that various sites will produce accurate temperature readings.
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A term borrowed from emergency and cardiovascular medicine, the phrase "Golden Hour" refers to the first hour of an infant's life following delivery. The impact of implementation of a Golden Hour Protocol in a level III neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for infants delivered at less than 28 weeks gestation was examined, with a focus on admission temperature, admission glucose, and time to the initiation of an intravenous glucose and amino acid administration. As part of a quality initiative project, data were collected before and after the implementation of the Golden Hour Protocol for infants born at less than 28 weeks gestational age from May 2008 through December 2011. ⋯ There was a statistically significant difference in the incidence of admission glucose greater than 50 mg/dL between the pre- and postprotocol groups (55.7% vs 72%; P = .012). There was a highly statistically significant difference in the number of post-Golden Hour Protocol infants who received an intravenous administration of glucose and amino acids within 1 hour of life compared with the preprotocol group (61.3% vs 7%; P = 0.001). Our results suggest that the implementation of the Golden Hour Protocol can significantly improve the stabilization of infants delivered less than 28 weeks gestation.