OBJECTIVE The neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is an area in which occupational therapists require specialized advanced training and skills. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the nature of current practice among occupational therapists in NICU settings, their training, and their opinions regarding educational experiences necessary for NICU work. METHOD One hundred seventy-four NICU...

Infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) face many challenges to their health and survival. The combination of stress, pain, isolation from parents, aversive stimuli and multiple caregivers in the NICU can intensify their challenges. To address from a music therapy perspective some of the negative effects of the NICU on premature infants, I conducted a pilot study at MCP Hahnemann Hos...

This study addressed the relationships between stress experienced by parents of hospitalized infants in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and the infants’ characteristics. 216 parents of at-risk infants in the NICU of two Teaching Hospitals in the SouthEast Zone of Nigeria were selected for the study. Two research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. The respondents completed...

BACKGROUND Over the course of multiple sclerosis (MS) several conditions may arise that require critical care. We aimed to study the reasons for admission and outcome in patients with MS admitted to a neuro-intensive care unit (NICU). METHODS We retrospectively searched the electronic charts of a 9-bedded NICU in a tertiary hospital for patients with a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS) fro...

The rapid progress in medical and technical innovations in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) has been accompanied by concern for outcomes of NICU graduates. Although advances in neonatal care have led to significant changes in survival rates of very small and extremely preterm neonates, early feeding difficulties with the transition from tube feeding to oral feeding are prominent and ofte...

The aim of the present study was to clarify clinical factors in low birth weight infants and their mothers associated with exclusive breastfeeding at both neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) discharge and the start of complementary feeding. One hundred and fifteen low birth weight children and 98 mothers attending the follow-up clinic of two tertiary NICUs in Nara prefecture (Japan), between Ju...

PURPOSE There is extensive literature on the physical and physiologic benefits of breastfeeding premature infants. Less is known about mothers' perceptions of their own breastfeeding experience. This study explored the maternal experience of breastfeeding initiation and progression in the NICU. DESIGN A qualitative, descriptive design. SAMPLE A convenience sample of ten mothers was recruite...

OBJECTIVE In canonical modern bioethics, withholding and withdrawing medical interventions for dying patients are considered morally equivalent. However, electing not to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) struck us as easily distinguishable from withdrawing mechanical ventilation. Moreover, withdrawing mechanical ventilation from a moribund infant "feels" different from withdrawing ...

AIM We compared neonatal deaths and end-of-life decisions in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) in a Dutch tertiary children's hospital. SUBJECTS All 235 full-term infants who died within 28 days of life between 2003 and 2013 in the NICU (n = 199) and PICU (n = 36) were retrospectively studied. RESULTS The median length of stay was three days in ...

Very preterm (VPT) infants admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) are at risk for altered brain growth and less-than-optimal socio-emotional development. Recent research suggests that early NICU-related stress contributes to socio-emotional impairments in VPT infants at 3 months through epigenetic regulation (i.e., DNA methylation) of the serotonin transporter gene (SLC6A4). In the pre...