Perceptions of Newborn Falls During Physical Contact

Physical Care of the Infants 

At the period of postpartum, infants require appropriate care to prevent them from falling. Falling of the infants can always lead to adverse effects on the child. Proper physical contact is, therefore, essential to avoid the occurrence of such dangers. Staff and parents' perceptions associated with the security of the newborn and parents ought to get included in the excellent practices. Besides, being a need for a full knowledge of ensuring the proper handling of the infant, the existing literature possess the limited knowledge on the understanding of falling off the newborn at the period of physical contact. The article 'Perceptions of Newborn Falls During Physical Contact' explore the security of the physical contact between the parents and the nurses and offers measures that can prevent falls and drops of the newborn. 

Relevance to Nursing 

There exists a low culture of mishandling of the babies. The babies usually fall as a result of a lack of appropriate education to parents on how to maintain firm physical contact with their babies. Also, babies fall due to lack of enough support given to the parents by healthcare. Babies fall during breastfeeding when the baby is getting passed to the parent by the nurse, and after caesarian section. The research of this article is relevant to the nursing field. Nursing aims at providing proper education and advocating for the safety needs of the patient ( Fowler & Lowman, 2019) . The article suggests that nurses should offer their patients enough knowledge on how to physically handle their babies to prevent the falls and drops of the newborn. 

Method 

The author was particular on the research questions and the purpose of the study. The main aim of this study was to understand the perceptions of newborn falls during physical contact with both the parents and the nurses. The study did involve both the dependent and independent variables. The independent variable is the falling of the babies while the dependent variables employed includes; newbornnewborn falls observed, factors facilitating physical contacts, barriers to physical contact, attempts of the participants to make kangaroo care effective, and concern of the participant regarding the kangaroo care ( Fowler & Lowman, 2019) . The study purely focused on quantitative data, and no qualitative data was employed. The methods of data collection involved include electronic surveying and interview. The methods used were inadequate since a participant could give a partial response to please the interviewer. The researcher interviewed nurses at various levels and their parents. By asking the parents about the barriers associated with physical contact to nurses, the nurses were likely to lie to reveal how good they are in dealing with their challenges. The best method of data collection that the author could have used is observation; it would help him to see the actual problems experienced. 

Population and Sample 

The author fails to explain the actual requirements of the participants, but the minimal requirements of parents are that they had to possess a command in English. The research did focus mainly on parents and nurses. Such as a choice is biased since there were other individuals who are neither nurses nor parents that can provide the best information. The sampling technique that got employed is convenience sampling, which is not an appropriate method of selection since it only focuses on the group suitable for reaching quickly. The research process involved 300 nurses retrieved from level III and Level II associated with neonatal ICU to respond to the research questions. Thirty women from level III neonatal ICUs, who were English speakers, were approached for the study. One parent from the Level II neonatal got an approach for questioning. The selection of the parents was disproportionate since thirty got picked from one level. In contrast, one was selected in another class; a balance had to be stroke to facilitate the collection of reliable information. 

Data Collection and Measurement 

The author applied two main methods of data collection; electronic surveying and interviewing. The methods of data collection mainly focused on independent variables. Only five questions were used. The questions addressed the literature and clinical experience that focused on the falling of the babies by the parents, parents sleeping when attending their babies, parents being woken up by the nurses while falling asleep, and major fears pertaining the falls of the baby. The research contains limited information on the content of the survey questions; this suggests that the data collected lacked reliability and cannot be trusted to get applied in healthcare. The use of electronic surveying and interviewing method to gather information is appropriate to the women in level II and III because they do bear enough energy to respond to elaborate methods of data collection. 

Theoretical Framework 

The author's theoretical framework focused mainly only on the Model of Human Caring. The model requires that nurses should portray care and concern through the quality of the service that they get offered. The model mainly focuses on maximizing on the care provided to a patient ( Sitzman & Watson, 2018) . The model also focuses on the role of the patient in maximizing his care. The author did address the issue of falling off the parents and the reasons that lead to such scenarios. She says that the primary reason why parents facilitate the falling of their babies is due to the lack of information on handled to the babies. She recommends that the best way to avoid the falling of the babies is for the nurses to provide proper education to the parents on how to handle the babies appropriately. The model of Human Caring has helped in building a theory of falling of the babies. 

Results 

There were three hundred nurses that got involved in the survey. Out of the 300, 22% of them responded to the study. Sixty-one of these nurses said that they had observed the falling of the babies. Thirty of the interviewed nurses suggested that physical contact happen to be driven by the best practices. Twenty nurses told that parental education is necessary for proper physical contact. Twenty nurses said that occasional control is efficient for coming up with safety practices. 

Regarding the impediments to physical contact, nineteen nurses said that lack of parental availability caused the falling of the baby. Twenty-four nurses noted that the nature of child facilitate his falling, and nine said that lack of time caused the falling of the baby. Twenty-five nurses suggested that the sleepy, tired parents drove the falling of the babies. Some nurses indicated that how babies get held to affect the falling of the baby. Six nurses suggested that parents that use cells phones while having their babies always increases the likelihood of falling off the baby ( Polit & Beck, 2009) . Out of the 30 parents from level III, twenty-seven said that they were not worried about the falling of the newborn. Twenty of the parents reported having fallen asleep while holding the babies. Out of the thirteen parents that were asked whether nurses always wake them while they sleep, eleven suggested that they are still woken up. When twenty-six nurses were asked a similar question, five indicated that it contributed to the tiredness of the mother. The results given by the author does not reveal the kind of analysis method he used. It is difficult for one to understand how the results get presented in the form of an essay; she ought to have provided it in the form of a table. 

Believability of Results 

The results that were provided by the study are believable. It is reasonable that the falling of the babies is resulted by some factors. Some of the factors which result to the falling of the babies include; lack of enough time by the parents, failure of the nurses to wake the tired parents, absence of the parent, severe nature of the baby, and lack of enough education by the nurse. The causes of falling of the baby may get solved by recommendation of the author, which suggests that knowledge by the nurses to the parents can solve the above problem. 

Significance of the Results 

The rates provided from the results can get used in decision making. The percentages show that the falling of the babies can get overcome. The results reveal that only sixty-six nurses took part in the survey from a total of three hundred. Twenty-four nurses show that lack of education is the leading cause of the falling of the babies. Nineteen nurses suggested that the absence of the parents causes the falling of the babies. Eleven parents admitted to getting woken up by the nurses when they fall asleep. The results are significant since they can help nurses to organize how they can educate the parents. 

Transferability 

The results of this research can get transferred into my practice as a registered nurse. From the study, I have discovered that there is a problem of the falling of newborn in hospitals. The factors which causes the falling of the babies to include; failure of the parents to have the appropriate education, use of cellphones by parents while holding the babies, absence of the parents, lack of enough time, and lack of frequent monitoring by the nurses. The above information will help me to prepare the appropriate education to give parents of the newborn. Incorporation of the results of the study will help in reducing the falling of the babies. 

Implications for Nursing Practice 

The articles emphasize the need for reducing the falling of the newborn. Through the knowledge provided concerning the causes of falling off the baby, it will help the nurses to come up with appropriate procedures of reducing the falling of the baby. The nurse will take the step of educating the parents of the newborn. Nursing will become careful to observe how the parents behave with the infant ( Grady, 2017) . The nurses will monitor the parents to ensure that they do not forget that they are sleeping with their babies. Educated parents will learn how to hold their newborn. 

Implications on Future Nursing Research 

The research talked about the limitations associated with this study. Those who will do similar research will understand these limitations; hence they will manage to overcome them. One of the problems of this research is that it did involve a small sample. Another problem is that it is not evident to discover the number of times the women held their babies while in hospitals. Also, the concerns raised by the nurses and parents are minimal. In the future, those who will do a similar result will ensure that they use a larger sample size. Also, they will do serious research on each variable. 

Conclusion 

Falling of the babies is a major problem facing the nurses and the parents. Babies fall while in the hospitals because of reasons such absence of the parent, use of the cell phone by the parent, lack of proper education to handle the baby, and lack of enough time by the parents. The nurses and parents can help in reducing the problem. Nurses should offer education to the parents on how to overcome the challenge of falling of the babies; parents should respond by doing as instructed to sanitize the healthcare. 

Reference 

Fowler, S., & Lowman, L. B. (2019). Perceptions of newborn fall during physical contact. Nursing2019 ,  49 (12), 57-59. 

Grady, P. A. (2017). Advancing science, improving lives: NINR's new strategic plan and the future of nursing science. 

Polit, D. F., & Beck, C. T. (2009).  Essentials of nursing research: Appraising evidence for nursing practice . Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. 

Sitzman, K., & Watson, J. (2018).  Caring science, mindful practise Implementing Watson's human caring theory . Springer Publishing Company.