การปฏิบัติของพยาบาลและปัจจัยที่เกี่ยวข้องในการดูแลเพื่อส่งเสริมพัฒนาการทารกเกิดก่อนกำหนด

Abstract

The developmental systems, especially the central nervous system (CNS), of a preterm infant are incomplete. An undesirable environment in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) can induce negative effects on the preterm’s growth and development. Appropriate nursing care practices in developmental care can reduce such effects. The purpose of this correlational descriptive research study was to investigate the nurses’ developmental care practices and related factors in preterm infant care. The population of this study included 148 nurses from the neonatal intensive care units at 7 tertiary hospitals in northern Thailand. The data were collected from August to October 2014. The study instruments comprised of: (1) the nurses’ practicesin developmental care of preterm infant’s questionnaire;(2) the related factors of nursing practices questionnaires,which recorded the nurses’ knowledge and opinion of developmental care and its policies,and the extent of guidelines and support from administratorsregardingdevelopmental care practice. The data were analyzed usingdescriptive statistics, Pearson product moment correlation coefficient and Spearman rank correlation coefficient.

The result of this study showed that: Most of the nurses (66.90%) practice frequently in developmental care for preterm infants. Also, the factors related to nurses’ developmental care practice for preterm infants were as follows: 1. The nursing factors; it was found that knowledge, provision of training courses for nurses, and nurses’ opinion about developmental care for preterm infants have a positive correlation with nurses’ developmental care practices (r= .219, r= .260, r=.364, p< .01). 2. The organizational factor; it was found that policy, guidelines and administrators’ support regarding developmental care practice for preterm infants have a positive correlation with nurses’ developmental care practice(r= .387, r= .253, r= .337, p< .01).

The findings of this study provides useful information about the practices of nurses and related factors in developmental care for preterm infants, and can be used to promote nurses’ developmental care practicesregardingpreterm infants among nurses.