Improving Discharge Planning In the NICU

The birth of a child is an exciting time for parents. They spend months preparing for the arrival of their baby, but parents aren’t prepared for complications that can occur at birth. Events such as early arrival or respiratory issues can result in a newborn being admitted to the NICU. This can create stress and anxiety for parents. Once a child is admitted to the NICU, it is important that discharge planning and education begin promptly, to alleviate parental distress, prepare them to care for their child upon discharge, and improve patient outcome, but some NICUs struggle to provide and communicate a consistent discharge plan and education to parents. Research suggests that implementing clear discharge planning protocol that begin upon admission and keeps parents informed and involved does decrease parental stress and increase readiness to care for their infant after discharge. To improve discharge planning, a NICU should consider implementing the following action items. Create a paper ‘road map to discharge’ that is kept at the baby’s bedside, to encourage parental involvement and to keep them informed of planning. Create an education platform that can be accessed through a patient portal. This can be highly effective, as nurses can assign specific learning material in specific language formats to effectively introduce standardized education topics as well as specialized ones. Nurses can then track progress and provide further education bedside as needed. Create a review committee of nurses, providers and graduate NICU parents, to review compliance to protocol, effectiveness of protocol, and adjust as appropriate based on their findings. To evaluate, follow up calls will be scheduled for two weeks post discharge. Standardized questions will be developed to gather parental feedback regarding their stress levels and preparedness after discharge as related to the planning and education received prior to discharge