The Conformity of Neonatal Skin Care with Nursing Standards in NICUs

Because of immature body systems and small body size of neonates, the neonatal nursing care should be provided with great sensitivity. Neonates’ skin is particularly immature and susceptible to injuries and can be easily damaged during care, monitoring and manipulating. This study aimed to assess the conformity of neonatal skin care with the standards of nursing care in the neonatal intensive care units of the selected hospitals affiliated to Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences.
In this descriptive study, 410 nursing care of neonates’ skin in NICUs of the selected hospitals of Imam Hossein, Mofid and Mahdieh were observed and recorded. Time and event sampling strategies were used to select the care units. The data were collected through observations by using a researcher-made checklist. The checklist was developed according to literature and existing standards about the neonatal skin care. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics in SPSS v. 16.
Conformity rate of neonates’ skin cares with the standards in neonatal intensive care units was estimated as 76.1% and quality of nursing cares was relatively acceptable. The highest agreement with the standard (above 90%) belonged in cares of not using of powder in diaper, proper use of electrodes on the baby's skin, proper use of disinfectants such as betadine on the baby's skin, proper replacement of diapers and securing of IV-line with transparent dressing. Finally, the least adherence with the standard was the documentation of care and evaluation.
The findings showed that the neonatal skin cares provided in the study settings have a satisfactory conformity with the standards of nursing care. Nonetheless, there is still a gap between the services and the standards. It seems nursing managers and administrators need to pay closer attention to neonatal intensive care facilities and equipments, staff development, and continuous supervision of staffs’ performance until neonatal skin care completely conformity with the standards of nursing care.