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LSU Health New OrleansLouisiana LEND in the news: 2020 LEND graduate Sara Lass leads initiative to support infant development
The capstone project for 2020 LEND graduate, Sara Lass, BSN, RN, is featured in Children Hospital New Orleans’ Nursing Annual Report. Lass addresses developmental delays in patients at Children’s Hospital Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) through her project “Supporting Infant Development in the CICU After Congenital Heart Repair: A Nursing-Led Initiative.”
“Development is delayed in most patients due to their hospitalization,” said Lass, who recognized a limited use of supportive modalities and equipment for care in these infants. “All high risk patients are referred to the early developmental intervention program Early Steps upon discharge. However, it was noted that valuable opportunities necessary to address development in the ICU and cardiac step-down setting were not being utilized.”
Lass’ objectives were to increase nurses’ knowledge of psychosocial developmental milestones in the newborn to 12-month age range, recognize factors that might interfere with this development in the CICU, discuss how to avoid these factors and facilitate normal development with nursing-led interventions.
After reviewing the literature to establish the current evidence regarding psychosocial milestones and ICU delirium in children, Lass created a curriculum that was presented to all staff nurses. The curriculum included expected psychosocial milestones, barriers to patients in achieving these milestones, and methods to facilitate these patients’ development.
Based on her learnings, Lass, in collaboration with the CICU Unit Practice Council, developed a daily schedule, implemented unit wide, that incorporates Child Life and other integrative therapies. The schedule gives families an expectation for their stay and supports their child’s circadian rhythms. Nurses can consult Child Life and Integrative Therapies to help support family-centered care. Modalities such as play, storytelling and healing touch are now being used to increase family bonding.
Much of this article is taken from Children’s Hospital New Orleans Nursing Annual Report 2020.
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About Louisiana LEND
The Louisiana Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) is a nine-month interdisciplinary training program that incorporates both didactic and experiential learning in clinical and community-based settings. LA LEND prepares graduate students, family members, self-advocates, and practicing professionals to become future leaders in designing and implementing services, policies, advocacy, and consuming/conducting research and evaluation addressing the needs and priorities of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), other neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDD) and developmental disabilities (DD) and their families.