The EASE Project Revisited: Improving Safe Sleep Practices in Ohio Birthing and Children's Hospitals

Early and consistent safe sleep practices in the neonatal intensive care unit: a sustained regional quality improvement initiative

OBJECTIVE

To increase compliance with standardized safe sleep recommendations for patients in a cohort of regional level III/IV neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in accordance with recently revised guidelines issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

STUDY DESIGN

A regional quality improvement (QI) initiative led by a multidisciplinary task force standardized safe sleep criteria across participating NICU sites. Universal and unit-specific interventions were implemented via Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles with evaluation of compliance through routine crib audits, run chart completion, and Pareto chart analysis.

RESULTS

Following QI implementation, compliance with safe sleep guidelines for eligible NICU infants improved from 34% to 90% from October 2019 through September 2022.

CONCLUSION

Compliance with early, consistent modeling of safe sleep practices nearly tripled in this cohort of regional NICUs. A standardized, timely approach to safe sleep transition demonstrated dramatic and sustained improvement in the practice and modeling of safe sleep behaviors in the NICU.

Steering the Titanic: One tertiary care children's hospital's experience navigating safe sleep for hospitalized infants

BACKGROUND

Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID) is the leading cause of death in infants 1 month to 1 year of age in the United States. Despite extensive efforts in research and public education, rates of sleep-related infant death have plateaued since the late-1990s, largely due to unsafe sleep practices and environments.

LOCAL PROBLEM

A multidisciplinary team assessed our institution's compliance with its own infant safe sleep policy. Data was collected on infant sleep practices, nurses' knowledge and training on the hospital policy, and teaching practices for parents and caregivers of hospitalized infants. Zero crib environments from our baseline observation met all the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations for infant safe sleep.

METHODS

A comprehensive safe sleep program was implemented in a large pediatric hospital system. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to improve compliance with safe sleep practice from 0% to 80%, documentation of infant sleep position and environment every shift from 0% to 90%, and documentation of caregiver education from 12% to 90% within 24 months.

INTERVENTIONS

Interventions included revision of hospital policy, staff education, family education, environmental modifications, creation of a safe sleep taskforce, and electronic health record modifications.

RESULTS

Documented compliance with infant safe sleep interventions at the bedside improved from 0% to 88%, while documentation of family safe sleep education improved from 12% to 97% during the study period.

CONCLUSIONS

A multifaceted, multidisciplinary approach can lead to significant improvements in infant safe sleep practices and education in a large tertiary care children's hospital system.

Ensuring Safe Sleep in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit: A Systematic Review of Informed Development of Clinical Guidelines for Implementation in Practice

INTRODUCTION

Although general safe sleep guidelines have been established, their utility and implementation have yet to be examined systematically for inpatient populations for application to infants in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) setting. This study aimed to complete a systematic review of inpatient safe sleep practices studies to develop then safe sleep clinical guidelines for implementation in the care of medically complex infants in the PICU.

METHOD

This review was registered with PROSPERO and adheres to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses systematic review guidelines.

RESULTS

Nineteen articles met the inclusion criteria. A safe sleep guideline algorithm for medically complex infants in the PICU was created for implementation.

DISCUSSION

Consistent and comprehensive safe sleep education and modeling by health care professionals in the inpatient setting is an effective technique to reduce the risk of harm and promote safe sleep behaviors in the home setting.

Social network influences on new mothers' infant sleep adjustments

Despite public awareness campaigns, some parents continue to engage in infant sleep practices that are considered risky by health experts, such as bedsharing or placing their infants on their stomachs. This study examines the role their social networks play in shaping parents' responsiveness to new information and/or suggestions about how they should place their infants for sleep, paying attention to the respective effects of health professionals and their close interpersonal ties. We collected data from a sample of 323 new mothers in Washington, D.C., who described their infant sleep practices and perceived personal social networks. We find evidence that mothers' social networks play a significant role in the likelihood that they adjust their infant sleep practices within the first few months of their infants' lives. Mothers are more likely to change sleep practices when health professionals and/or (lay) family members advise them to do so. The influence of network members is not always positive. For mothers who initially follow safe practices, their probability of change increases if their network members substantially espouse unsafe practices. Among mothers with initially unsafe practices, network members' level of support for safe sleep practices is not predictive of the likelihood of sleep practice change. Implications for potential interventions are discussed.

Expansion of a multi-pronged safe sleep quality improvement initiative to three children's hospital campuses

Background

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends infants should be Alone, on their Back, and in a clear Crib to combat relatively stagnant rates of sudden unexpected infant death (SUID). These are referred to as the ABCs of safe sleep. Studies have shown these recommendations are not consistently followed in the hospital setting, but further investigation would determine how to improve the rate of adherence. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of an expanded safe sleep initiative at three Georgia free-standing children’s hospital campuses before and after a multipronged safe sleep initiative.

Methods

A quality improvement program with a pre/post analysis was performed using a convenience method of sampling. Infants < 12 months old in three inpatient pediatric campuses were analyzed pre- and post- interventions. The intervention included: 1) nursing education, 2) identification of nurse “safe sleep” champions, 3) crib cards, 4) crib audits, and 5) weekly reporting of data showing nursing unit ABC compliance via tracking boards. The goal was ABC compliance of ≥25% for the post-intervention period. A standardized crib audit tool evaluated sleep position/location, sleep environment, and ABC compliance (both safe position/location and environment). Chi square analysis, Fisher’s exact test, and logistic regression were used to compare safe sleep behaviors before and after the interventions.

Results

There were 204 cribs included pre-intervention and 274 cribs post-intervention. Overall, there was not a significant change in sleep position/location (78.4 to 76.6%, p = 0.64). There was a significant increase in the percent of infants sleeping in a safe sleep environment following the intervention (5.9 to 39.8%, p < 0.01). Overall ABC compliance, including both sleep position/location and environment, improved from 4.4% pre-intervention to 32.5% post-intervention (p < 0.01). There was no significant variability between the hospitals (p = 0.71, p = 1.00).

Conclusions

The AAP’s safe sleep recommendations are currently not upheld in children’s hospitals, but safer sleep was achieved across three children’s campuses in this study. Significant improvements were made in sleep environment and overall safe sleep compliance with this multi-pronged initiative.