Weaning parents off monitors in preparation for discharge

Specialties NICU

Published

Hi all,

Wondering if your unit has any kind of protocol or method to "wean" parents off their babies monitors. Meaning, how to you get them to be more attuned to the baby and less to the monitor especially when baby is stable and working toward discharge.

I dont feel like our unit is very good at preparing families for the monitor free life at home.

We have the ability to do parent screen on the Philips monitors but we rarely use it.

Any tips or suggestions appreciated.

Thanks!

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They usually room in for one night with no monitors if they are going home on no monitors.

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If there's no longer an indication for monitoring we take it off

Ie. off resp support, off potassium containing iv fluid, off caffeine for a week and free of spells, 36 weeks

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Specializes in Neonatal Nurse Practitioner.
If there's no longer an indication for monitoring we take it off

Ie. off resp support, off potassium containing iv fluid, off caffeine for a week and free of spells, 36 weeks

I wish. We take them off as they're rolling out the door.

1
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Specializes in NICU.

Have you guys heard of Owlet? it's a pulse ox for parents to bring home. Manufacturer says it's not a medical device and they have pretty liberal limits- I think O2 sat limit is 80% and HR 60, but still! One more thing for parents to obsess over. I haven't had a parent ask about it yet, but am dreading...

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Have you guys heard of Owlet? it's a pulse ox for parents to bring home. Manufacturer says it's not a medical device and they have pretty liberal limits- I think O2 sat limit is 80% and HR 60, but still! One more thing for parents to obsess over. I haven't had a parent ask about it yet, but am dreading...

Several reports of burns for the owlet, so it's a no from me.

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I wish. We take them off as they're rolling out the door.

Do your parents not room in ?

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Specializes in Neonatal Nurse Practitioner.
Several reports of burns for the owlet, so it's a no from me.

Honestly, the owlet is just a pulse ox. I doubt that it's actually biting the babies. The parent see reddened, peeling, damaged skin and understandably assume it's a burn. I think it's more likely that parents are leaving the sensor in the same place for hours, maybe a whole day or longer, at a time.

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Specializes in Neonatal Nurse Practitioner.
Do your parents not room in ?

We don't force most to. We do make sure they've covered all of the care including multiple feeds. The only ones that are required to room in are the ones who are going home with equipment. We have single patient rooms and parents are allowed 24/7, so they usually spend a lot of time throughout their stay. We have fantastic readmission rates and high parent satisfaction rates (we call all of them several weeks after discaharge and our NICU specific press Haney scores hover around 96%), so I don't think requiring them to room in is something we need to change at the moment.

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Specializes in NICU.

Our babies don't get their leads taken off until discharge. Their pulse ox can be removed if they meet the parameters, but that's it.

Yeah, we get asked about the Owlet a lot, but are not allowed to give our opinions on it. Most of the nurses on the unit with babies of their own have it though and they seem to like it. We just had a nurse with a 5 month old die at her daycare, so almost all of our nurses have one now. Everyone is being overly cautious, just in case.

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Specializes in NICU.
Our babies don't get their leads taken off until discharge. Their pulse ox can be removed if they meet the parameters, but that's it.

Yeah, we get asked about the Owlet a lot, but are not allowed to give our opinions on it. Most of the nurses on the unit with babies of their own have it though and they seem to like it. We just had a nurse with a 5 month old die at her daycare, so almost all of our nurses have one now. Everyone is being overly cautious, just in case.

Does the daycare let her baby wear it there? Wow. I wouldn't think a daycare would allow something like that. Such a sad story though, my heart goes out to her.

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Specializes in NICU.

No, the baby didn't have it on at the time. It was her first day at a new daycare and her mom got the call while she was at work in the NICU. All of the other moms on our unit are having their kids wear them anytime they're asleep. They're no where as accurate as medical monitors, but at least they're something.

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