Director, Nursing Research and Evidence-Based Practice
Children's Wisconsin
Hinsdale, Illinois, United States
Rosemary White-Traut, PhD, RN, FAAN is the Director of Nursing Research and Evidenc-Based Practice at Children's Wisconsin, and Professor Emerita at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Dr. White-Traut has developed a behavioral intervention for premature and full term infants and their parents to help support infant behavioral organization, oral feeding, growth, and development while engaging them with their parents. The intervention, initially known as the ATVV, provides auditory stimuli via infant directed speech; tactile stimuli via moderate touch stroking; visual stimuli in the form of eye-to-eye contact; and vestibular stimuli via rocking. The ATVV is now called Massage+. Massage+ was enhanced to include participatory guidance and social support for parents named Parents+. The combination Massage+ and Parents+ is called H-HOPE.
For healthly newly born full term infants, the ATVV reduces stress reactivity (measured by salivary cortisol). When administered to full term infants prenatally exposed to illicit substances, the ATVV changed behavioral organization to approximate that of non-exposed infants. For premature infants, the ATVV improves oral feeding by supporting the transition from sleep to awake and increasing the number of orally directed behaviors resulting in improved sucking organization and infants were able to progress more quickly from tube to oral feeding, resulting in shorter length of hospitalization. Infants demonstrated improved weight gain and grew faster in length. Hospital costs were reduced on an average of $14,000 per infant. Mothers experienced improved confidence in caring for their infants and improved patterns of maternal-infant interaction. Lastly, infants who received the intervention had fewer illnesses within the first two months after hospital discharge.
Dr. White-Traut and her team are currently funded by the NICHD to implement H-HOPE in 6 NICUs around the country. Nursing staff are trained on H-HOPE and will implement the intervention with parents.
Disclosure information not submitted.
Thursday, September 15, 2022
1:15 PM – 2:15 PM PDT