Trauma-Informed Care in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit: Promoting Safety, Security, and Connectedness
- Duration: 60 Mins
- Credits: 1 Nurse Contact Hours
- Learning Format: Webinar
- Handout: Yes
- Origin: GOLD Learning
Abstract:
Human infants expect to engage and connect to their adult care providers to feel safe, secure, and thrive. The autonomic or unconscious nervous system alerts us whether we feel safe, in danger, or in a life-threatening situation. When we feel safe, we are open, calm and ready to engage. When we feel in danger, our sympathetic nervous system is activated; our hearts race, and we may either lash out or leave. Finally, if we feel our lives are endangered, we may collapse, shut down or dissociate. Neuroscientist Stephen Porges calls the unconscious awareness of our safety, danger, or life threat, neuroception.
When babies are hospitalized in a newborn intensive care unit. (NICU), their biological expectancies of physical and emotional proximity to their caregivers are disrupted. Both hospitalized babies and their families may have neuroceptions of danger or even life threat reflected in their behaviors and vital signs. Supporting parasympathetic vagal tone through the continuous presence of families, skin to skin care, and forming strong relationships can mitigate the trauma of a hospitalization in the NICU.
Trauma-informed care in the NICU supports babies and their families to remain together, supports parents as the primary relationship for their babies and builds safety, security, and connectedness among babies, families, and staff.
Learning Objectives:
Objective 1: Participants will be able to describe the evolutionarily-based hierarchy of behaviors associated with neuroceptions of safety, danger, or life threat;
Objective 2: Participants will be able to list three biological expectancies of the human newborn;
Objective 3: Participants will be able to describe 3 strategies for reducing trauma in the NICU.
