Early Skin to Skin Contact - Essay Example

Early Skin To Skin Contact Introduction Early skin to skin contact begins the moment the newborn is still in the womb. The way a newborn is introduced into the world is very important. Additionally, the method used to present an infant into the new environment may have short and long-term consequences. There is sufficient evidence that standard, term babies who are placed on their mother's skin right after birth makes the transition from fetal to newborn life with greater respiratory, temperature, and glucose stability and significantly less crying indicating less stress. Thus, the instant with which newborns are made to have early skin to skin contact will play a significant role in determining the success of skin to skin contacts Identifying a Researchable Problem A complicated and important job for a nurse in researching best practice policies is coming up with a specific question that you can answer with research evidence (Polit et al., 2012). In order to ascertain the best time for making early skin to skin contact, nurses have to give a lot pf question considerations. So, a clinical question that surrounds patient-centered care can help the nurse obtain necessary information in acknowledging the needs of patients of patient populations (Krainovich et al., 2009). This initial step is important in helping the nurse in coming up with an answerable clinical question needs first to identify a single nursing issue or problem. After that, the nurse puts the nursing issue or problem of interest into a question that can be easy to research and that will give the best evidence to recognize EBP (Davies, 2011). By researching up to date nursing issues of best care, practices on a maternity unit, a nurse now can develop a way to put an issue or concern into practice. Thus, nurses will be in a position to come up with solutions to all problems related to maternity. Evidence-Based Practice A nurse coming up with a clinical question first needs to identify nursing problems in terms of interest, familiarizing with the issue, and research ability (Polit et al., 2012). This approach is termed as evidence bases practice and aims to equip the nurse with the professional skills. After that, you need to evaluate a nursing issue in terms of correlation and importance to practice (Polit et al., 2012). For instance, an area nursing professionals are now concentrating on is the importance and need to update healing practices as a way to incorporate professional guidelines to improve patients outcome (Shaheen et al., 2011). Moreover, a concern that is getting attention, in the postpartum unit is providing the Best Nursing Care Practices immediately after targeting delivery mothers and their newborn. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP), and the World Health Organization (WHO) are now suggesting the practice of early skin to skin contact (SSC) or called kangaroo mother care for newborns instead of hospital protocol of swaddling (Phillips, 2013). First SSC involves mothers holding the naked infant on their chest immediately or within a half hour after birth rather than the traditional practice of children placed under a radiant warmer and swaddled in blankets (Phillips, 2013). As well, a nurse coming up with a clinical question to addressing SSC for mothers and their newborns can improve nursing practice. After coming up with a nursing issue now, you have to come up with five questions to define practicality. Practicality of the Clinical Question Figuring out the practicality of a clinical problem requires the nurse to simplify the issue to make sure it is researchable (Kalnovich et al., 2009). One way Polit and Beck (2012) suggest the nurse to ask questions that concentrates a nursing issue on diagnosing, assessing, treating patients or developing a better understanding of care practices. The following five questions related to SSC come from Polit and Beck (2012) suggestions: What is an effective way to achieving implementation of early SSC on maternity units? Or what is the impacts of early SSC on maternal- infant bonding? What are the potential physiological effects of early SSC on expectant mothers and their newborns? What are professional organizations recommendations for early SSC on maternity units? The nurse puts the topic of interest into a question using "what is" then reviewing it to see if it complies with the desired outcome for a researchable question that can impact the nursing profession (Polit et al., 2012). One the practicality of the clinical problem is established, then comes putting the topic into an answerable question. Developing a Clinical Question Developing a clinical question may be a challenging initiative to take. It thus needs a lot of care and precaution to ensure that a well thought clinical problem is brought up for discussion. The nurse is coming up to a well thought out clinical problem and then applying that to a particular format will allow the question to be answered by research (Davies, 2011). This move has facilitated the identification of the most appropriate research question in the patient care. Besides, researchers have come up with a procedure to help phrase a clinical question. This issue is called the PICO format; PICO stands for Patient/ Intervention/ Comparison/ Outcome (Davies, 2011). A PICO question can be made to help support EBP on breastfeeding. My PICO question is this: Do early SSC in the delivery room for newborns and their mothers increase breastfeeding rates compared to infants who receive standards of care at birth? The outcome variable is measured any breastfeeding or exclusive breastfeeding. The World Health Organization (WHO) gives an accurate definition for exclusive breastfeeding as only milk coming from the mother (WHO, 2014). A well-structured question can help the nurse identify keywords for a literature search. Conducting the Research The process of conducting the research involves a lot of practical procedure that must be followed by the nurse concerned. The PICO question identifies the keywords to help with an online literature search (Davies, 2011). Keywords should include but not limited to all aspects of the PICO question (Polit et al., 2012). The keywords related to this paper are newborns, infants, and mothers. In addition, other similar terms to the intervention are skin to skin contact; kangaroo mother care, friendly baby initiative, and standards of care. Al these terms will be vividly discussed in this paper to come up with the best solution to the PICO problem. The next step is comparing related terms to birth. Lastly, variables of outcomes are breastfeeding or exclusive breastfeeding. It is important to note that all these specified keywords are in direct correlation to this paper's PICO question. Thus, the mentioned words are often seen in research literature looking at best after delivery care practices for mothers and their newborns. When using these particular words in various electronic databases search engines, this will help identify research evidence to answer this paper's PICO question. Conclusion Coming up with a PICO question is the key to implementing best care practices. A PICO question can help guide your search to find the latest in best practices initiatives. This paper has clearly discusses the importance of EBP in best care practice. In addition, the paper has shown how such EBP can be effectively applied when implementing new practices in an organization. Thus, the Early Best Practice must be implemented in order to achieve the best success in any patient care being undertaken by the nurses. Thusd, EBP will need the full participation of all parties. References Davies, S. (2011). Formulating the evidence based practice question: a review of the frameworks. Evidence Based library and Information Practice. 6(2). 75-80. Retrieved from https://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/EBLIP/article/viewfile/9741/8144 Krainovich-Miller, B., Haber, J., Yost., Jacobs, S. (2009). Evidence-based practice challenge: teaching critical appraisal of systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines to graduate students. Journal of Nursing Education. 48(4). 186-195. Doi: 10.3928/01484834-20090401-07. Phillips, R. (2013). The sacred hour: uninterrupted skin to skin contact immediately after birth. Newborn and infant Nursing Reviews. 13. 67-72. doi.org.ezp.waldenlibrary.org/10.1053/jPolit. Polit, D. F., & Beck, C. T. (2012).  Nursing research: Generating and assessing evidence for nursing practice (Laureate Education, Inc., custom ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Shaheen, M., Foo, S., Luyt, B., Zhang, X., Theng, Y., Mokhtar, I. (2011). Adopting evidence-based practice in clinical decision making nurses’ perception, knowledge, and barriers. Journal of the Medical Library Association. 99(3). 229-236. Doi: 10.3163/1536-5050.99.3.010. Read More