Abstract

Kari Tanta, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA is the rehabilitation manager of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and the NICU follow-up (NFU) program at Valley Medical Center (VMC). To address the problem of decreased NFU attendance, the following clinical question was asked: “For families with an infant who has been discharged from a NICU, which factors promote or discourage utilization of follow-up services?” Numerous facilitators and barriers affecting attendance were identified relating to severity of infant illness, parent socioeconomic status and education levels, and pragmatic factors including timing of scheduling.

Knowledge translation activities undertaken included collaboration with University of Washington (UW) students, collaboration with grant writer Leanna Birge, PhD, and submission of findings for publication. Due to conflicting schedules, collaboration with the UW students was limited to a brief telephone dialogue. The collaboration with Dr. Birge will directly support the acquisition of grants for informal quality improvement (QI) studies. The submitted article will potentially reach many readers specializing in pediatrics, though it is difficult to assess the true reach of the article. Further research should investigate effective methods for increasing NFU program service utilization.

Publication Place

Tacoma, Washington

Publisher

University of Puget Sound

Project Chairperson

Jennifer Pitonyak, PhD, OTR/L, SCFES

Project Chairperson

Publication Date

5-2017

Genre

Capstone Project

Format

PDF

Language

English

Degree Program

Occupational Therapy

Degree Level

Master of Science

Discipline

Occupational Therapy

School

University of Puget Sound

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