Title : Oral feeding methods in preterm infants: Nursing care
Abstract:
The acquisition of oro-motor skills for oral feeding is considered one of the milestones in the development of the preterm infant, being the first big stage of his neurodevelopment (1; 2), these skills will provide a safe, functional and pleasurable feeding (1). In the last years has been growing a devaluation of fundamental care (3), a transversal reality in neonatal units which oral feeding is often delegated to nurses with less experience and expertise, who may not be able to identify subtle signs of neuro-behavioural disorganisation in preterm infants (4). Oral feeding as a nurse intervention, requires that nurses have knowledge for a decision-making based on scientific evidence, particularly for choose the most effective oral feeding method for an adequate nutrition, necessary for the growth and development of the preterm infant. Although, Richards et al. in 2018, report a scarcity and inadequate scientific evidence about the effectiveness of fundamental care interventions, namely in feeding (5). This may be the reason why the choice of oral feeding methods falls mainly on the opinion and beliefs of nurses (6; 7) and not in scientific evidence (8; 7). This can be the reason why different feeding methods are applied throughout the 24h, motivating delays in the acquisition of feeding autonomy in the preterm infant (Pickler, Reyna, Wetzel & Lewis, 2015) and consequently delay the discharge. For all this reasons we think it is important develop a research where the choices of nurses and the application of feeding methods (bottle, cup and finger-feeding) are analyse, through filming the application of the feeding methods and nurse interviews. By knowing the nurses main difficulties on this topic, we intend to develop training strategies that really meet their needs and contribute for an effective improvement in nursing care. After the implementation of the training programme, we pretend to analyse the nurse intervention again in order to assess his effectiveness and, if successful replicated in other neonatal units. With this investigation we hope contribute to the improvement of the quality of care in neonatology, chance and innovate the nurse care and to promote continuous training on oral feeding and personal and professional development.
