In-hospital breastfeeding may imply significant challenges for mothers of infant patients. For instance, external factors that cause emotional and psychological discontent in patients may affect the efficacy of care and increase the length of their hospital stay (Folker-Maglaya, Pylman, Couch, Spatz, & Marzalik, 2018).
The specified issue concerns both mothers and their newborn children (Radzyminski & Callister, 2015). For instance, mothers may become upset by the hospital policies that require reducing the amount of mother-infant communication and interaction to less than 24 hours per day, usually limiting it to 23 hours or less (Wright & Hurst, 2018). In turn, infants may experience emotional discomfort for the same reason.
The observed issues may affect mothers’ ability to produce milk required for breastfeeding, hence the drop in the health status of infants (Wright & Hurst, 2018). Based on the activities performed during the nursing practice, it will be reasonable to shape the current guidelines for care by introducing patient education for mothers concerning the significance of post-natal care for infants. Nurses, in turn, will have to be instructed on the management of infants’ needs to reduce the extent of their emotional distress. With the integration of patient education principles and the promotion of nurse-patient education, the quality of care will rise.
One of the key discoveries made during my DNP-related activities concerned the lack of awareness about correct breastfeeding among mothers of newborn children. Most patients, particularly those that had their first experience of childbirth, had a very vague idea of how to tend to the needs of infants, especially regarding the breastfeeding process. Therefore, the first step in educating patients concerns providing them with fundamental information about caring for infants.
Information about the correct latch-on, the signs of proper sucking and swallowing, and the required length of feeding must be provided to mothers (Folker-Maglaya et al., 2018). The resulting increase in successful breastfeeding will reduce the length of hospital stay and increase infants’ well-being.
Additional instructions about nutritional supplements will also have to be offered to the target population to avoid the instances of undernourishment in children. The process of learning will have to incorporate different types of medium, from textual to visual to simulator-based ones. Thus, nurses will be able to provide the target population with the full extent of data required for proper management of infants’ nourishment-related needs.
The specified stage of the educational program aligns with the standards regarding patient education established in both the DNP manual (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2006) and the AONA guidelines (American Organization of Nurse Executives, 2015). Thus, it needs to be included in the nursing program for addressing low awareness rates among the target demographic.
Since it is impossible for the program to cover every conceivable aspect of breastfeeding and predict every possible unique scenario that a mother may have during the breastfeeding process, the program should also incorporate information about knowledge management and the means of retrieving additional data. Thus, detailed instructions concerning the means of maintaining communication with patients should become an important part of the program following the AONA standards (American Organization of Nurse Executives, 2015). As long as mothers are aware of where they can obtain crucial information about breastfeeding, the issue will be controlled properly.
The promotion of patient education based on the principles of DNP Essentials and the AONA will help nurses to improve the current situation with breastfeeding within the hospital environment. By the AONA guidelines, nurses will have to educate mothers about the importance of postnatal care, the correct positions for breastfeeding, the frequency and length thereof, and other important pieces of information that inexperienced mothers will need. As a result, the efficacy of breastfeeding in the clinical environment will rise, reducing the length of patients’ stay and the threat of comorbid issues development.
References
American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2006). The essentials of doctoral education for advanced nursing practice. Web.
American Organization of Nurse Executives. (2015). Nurse executive competencies. Web.
Folker-Maglaya, C., Pylman, M. E., Couch, K. A., Spatz, D. L., & Marzalik, P. R. (2018). Implementing a breastfeeding toolkit for nursing education. The Journal of Perinatal & Neonatal Nursing, 32(2), 153-163. Web.
Radzyminski, S., & Callister, L. C. (2015). Health professionals’ attitudes and beliefs about breastfeeding. The Journal of Perinatal Education, 24(2), 102-109. Web.
Wright, A. I., & Hurst, N. M. (2018). Personal infant feeding experiences of postpartum nurses affect how they provide breastfeeding support. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing, 47(3), 342-351. Web.