Kangaroo Care, Facilitated Tucking and Non-Nutritive Sucking to Reduce Pain in Neonates: A Best Practice Proposal

Increasing survival rates of preterm infants and a greater understanding of the long-term consequences of prematurity and early exposure to pain have generated a greater need for non-pharmacological pain management measures in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) setting. These pain management interventions are necessary to decrease the potentially unfavorable consequences of early exposure to pain, and to promote positive long-term outcomes in this 5 population. The purpose of this thesis was to propose a best practice plan for kangaroo care, facilitated tucking and non-nutritive sucking interventions for infants receiving care in the NICU. Synthesis of available research is presented to support the use of these interventions as methods of non-pharmacological pain management, and to formulate policies for implementation in the hospital setting. Policies included in this paper were specifically developed for use in the NICU at St. Joseph's hospital in Tucson, Arizona. Effectiveness of the aforementioned interventions will be evaluated using an informal written questionnaire, distributed to nurses on the targeted unit