The Wee Care® Program

A Comprehensive and Highly Effective Program to Train Your Entire Staff…and Have Fun Doing It!

(8 hour program)

The Wee Care Program is a clinically relevant, comprehensive program designed to teach the practice of developmentally supportive, family-centered care while providing realistic approaches toward its integration into daily practice. The goal of this research-based program is to train nursery staff, including all support personnel, to achieve the best possible outcomes for premature infants and their families. Our multi-disciplinary, clinically active faculty provide instruction through lecture, interactive dialogue and hands-on demonstrations of practical skills, both in the classroom and in your NICU. Prior to the Wee Care training, an on-site assessment is performed in order to understand your unit’s current developmental practice and specific NICU training objectives.

After the on-site training program, leadership visits, clinical follow-up visits and progress reports take place over the course of a year. Each of these components helps to ensure that the program implementation builds a solid foundation in developmentally supportive care while sustaining practice and cultural change.

The Wee Care Program Includes:

• Classroom instruction on developmental theories and cues, sensory system development, environmental issues, family-centered care and developmental outcomes of premature and ill infants

• Hands-on workshops focusing on positioning, feeding, family-centered care principles and other aspects of handling and caregiving

• Bedside consultation and mentoring through unique leadership education and training in the NICU to help problem-solve daily challenges

• Special shortened presentations for support staff that address their contribution to a developmentally supportive environment

• Practical ideas for integration of developmental care through unit process improvement

• Assistance in establishing and supporting a developmental care committee and a collaborative model for plan implementation

• Contact hours for clinical staff

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Integrating Developmental Care Into Feeding Practice^SM

(Available as an 8-hour or 4-hour program)

Integrating Developmental Care Into Feeding Practice is a comprehensive, holistic feeding course that takes the participants on a step-by-step journey to facilitate safe and successful bottle feeding in the NICU. This unique one-day program allows the participants to integrate published research and theories into clinical practice through a combination of didactic sessions, learning videos, interactive experiences and discussios. NICU staff are challenged to understand and respect the complexities of neonatal feeding, to generate developmentally appropriate approaches and bottle feeding strategies in the NICU, and to communicate the feeding plan more effectively with families and staff. Topics such as breastfeeding, consistent parent communication and cue-based feeding approaches are discussed.

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The Yellow Brick Road: Supporting the Hospitalized Infant and Family Through Their Journey ^SM

(8 hour program)

Parents anticipating the birth of a healthy new baby are often traumatized by the birth of a premature or ill infant. The labor and delivery suite is replaced by the operating room or an emergency birth; the newborn placed on mom’s chest is replaced by a medical team stabilizing the infant; and the baby’s bedroom will remain empty as the infant must spend the first few weeks or months of life in a high-tech intensive care setting.

This program provides caregivers an opportunity to step back and examine the parent-infant journey from the crisis of the baby’s NICU arrival to the long-awaited discharge home. Following the family from the pregnancy through the birth, and then the transition to a gradual acceptance of the baby’s medical condition, this program encourages staff to appreciate the challenges the critically ill infant, family and staff must face during the hospital stay.

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Preemie For a Day^®

A Fun and Interactive Workshop

(Two, 4-hour workshops per day)

Preemie for a Day is an interactive, multi-sensory training program that contrasts the experience of the infant in a traditional environment to a developmentally supportive one. This unique program includes an overview of developmental care as well as hands-on workshops on admissions, positioning, feeding and addressing the needs of the family. The program, led by our clinically active faculty, consists of two 4-hour workshops each day and is designed for up to 75 people per day.

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The Technology-Dependent Infant^SM

(8-hour program)

How do you identify a baby who may need home monitoring? Are you acquiring all of the necessary information to make sound medical decisions?

The Technology Dependent Infant course is a comprehensive program introducing participants to waveform analysis for a more complete infant assessment. Small group discussions, problem-solving and hands-on experience with the Synergy™E and Synergy™-S software programs assist in the identification of infant cardio-respiratory events and enhance participants confidence and competence with infant waveform analysis. The program addresses both multi-channel continuous waveform recordings for inpatient diagnostic use, as well as trend event monitoring for the home care infant.

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Jaundice Management: Ensuring Optimal Outcomes^SM

(Two, 4-hour workshops per day)

The Jaundice Management Education Program presents a comprehensive overview of bilirubin physiology and describes risk factors that threaten newborn wellness. In the context of the newly revised American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Guidelines, the course content integrates the rationale for early detection with screening and treatment options that promote family-focused care, address the individual developmental needs of the infant, and minimize stress and discomfort for the jaundiced term and preterm infant. The program will help caregivers identify infants at increased risk for hyperbilirubinemia, implement effective screening criteria, develop unit-based protocols consistent with the most recent literature, and establish parent-teaching forums to promote awareness of an infants early-hospital discharge.