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Telenursing Service for Neonatal Post-discharge Home Care

Authors:
Valentina Isetta
Carmen Lopez-Agustina
Montserrat Vila
Asunción Clemente
Meritxell Cucala
Ramon Farré

Keywords: eNurse; neonatology; telemedicine; home monitoring.

Abstract:
The application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in nursing care is becoming more widespread but few examples have been reported in neonatal care. The post-discharge period of sick newborns from a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is a challenging time for young families. Neonatal Home Care Programs offer home support after discharge but clinical and geographical constraints render this service inaccessible to many families that could benefit from it. This paper describes a new web-based application that provides online monitoring of babies after discharge from a NICU. By accessing to a personal area on the website, parents are asked to periodically answer a questionnaire about the newborn’s health status (weight, feeding, sleep, etc.). The answers are continuously monitored by professional nurses, who can communicate online with parents to advise them about good baby care. Moreover, high-quality informative documents of use to babies’ families are available online. The aim of this tool is to ease pressure on the healthcare system from additional visits, reduce hospitalization and improve parents’ satisfaction. The results of a usability test with potential users are shown.

Pages: 55 to 60

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2012

Publication date: January 30, 2012

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-4359

ISBN: 978-1-61208-179-3

Location: Valencia, Spain

Dates: from January 30, 2012 to February 4, 2012