Improving SIDS Discharge Education : A Standardized Approach
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Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) prevention continues to be a focus in healthcare. The consistency and quality of education regarding safe sleep practices provided to parents of newborns at discharge can affect the techniques used at home to prevent death from SIDS. A quality improvement project was conducted at a hospital in the Midwest involving registered nurses on the obstetrics and special care nursery units. The intervention consisted of developing a standardized safe sleep educational pamphlet and a plan for consistent discharge education regarding SIDS prevention. Participants completed a pretest assessing their baseline knowledge of SIDS prevention and safe sleep, utilized the new SIDS prevention pamphlet along with a oneminute video clip to deliver discharge education regarding safe sleep to parents of newborns, and then took the posttest at the completion of the project. Quantitative data was examined from pretest and posttest scores, along with qualitative feedback solicited from parent surveys about the education after discharge. Participation was low and results showed no change in knowledge from the comparison of pre and posttest answers. When asked, parents were able to recall key elements of the education and indicated that they used the information about safe sleep at home.