St. Luke’s NIDCAP® Training Program

The region’s first and most experienced newborn intensive care unit is at St. Luke’s Medical Center. We offer NIDCAP training and education to health care professionals from Idaho and around the world. Our NIDCAP training program offers professional education, training, consultation, and support for promoting the infant’s emerging developmental competence while facilitating parents capability to understand their infant’s needs.

St. Luke’s NIDCAP Training and Education Center is the only designated NIDCAP training site in the Pacific Northwest and one of 16 such centers worldwide.

Training Overview

The goal of St. Luke’s NIDCAP approach is to help make newborn care more sensitive to an infant’s and family’s strengths and competencies. Training includes systematic observation and recording of an infant’s behaviors and responses before, during and following caregiving; formulation of a descriptive summary of the infant’s behavior within the context of the environment; articulation of the infant’s goals; and recommendations to facilitate the achievement of these goals. These recommendations include environmental modification, caregiving sensitive to the infant’s status and support of the infant’s developmental needs. This observational methodology is a component of our individualized neurobehaviorally supportive family-centered care.

St. Luke’s NIDCAP Training is appropriate for:

• Nurses
• Neonatologists and Pediatricians
• Respiratory Therapists
• Social Workers
• Physical and Occupational Therapists
• Developmental Specialists
• Early Childhood Educators
• Psychologists/Psychiatrists
• Other professionals caring for pre-term infants and/or infants that require special care, and their families

Continuing Education

Continuing education contact hours (CEUs) are available for St. Luke’s NIDCAP training and education.

Certification

To obtain reliability certification in NIDCAP, training phases include:

1. Required reading before training.

2. Two days of formal instruction, including:

• Didactic presentation
• Introduction to direct observation training
• Experiencing the path parents travel to get to their child’s bedside in the NICU
• Direct observation in the newborn intensive care unit
• Discussion and write-up of the observation and the implications for care
• Discussion of homework
• Use of the reflective process

3. Consultation regarding the multidisciplinary approach toward developmental care within the NICU and the larger hospital environment.

4. Homework that is accomplished by participants in their respective NICUs and full-term nurseries.

• Observation of a 24-hour course of three different pre-term infants is recommended in order to appreciate the 24-hour flow of events in their respective nursery as they impinge on the infant.
  • high intensive care
  • intermediate
  • close to discharge
• Observation before, during and after caregiving of at least five pre-term infants at each of the following levels of care is recommended. Each observation is followed by recoding the developmental observation, the infant’s current goals and care recommendations. A total of 15 observations takes place in this phase.
  • intensive care
  • intermediate
  • pre-discharge
• Observation before, during and after caregiving and write-up of the observation of at least five full-term infants is encouraged.
• Also recommended is the observation before, during and after caregiving of three infants under the participant’s own care, when cared for by someone else; writing of developmental observations and recommendations, subsequent implementation of recommended caregiving modifications when the participant is staffing the observed child’s care; and re-observation of the success of the recommendations.

5. Written critical review of at least one complete write-up done following approximately 10 full observations is encouraged.

6. Written critical review of at least one complete write-up done just prior to scheduling a reliability session is recommended.

7. Reliability certification can also be achieved through the St. Luke’s NIDCAP Training and Education Center (at either the St. Luke’s NICU or the NICU of the trainee’s hospital). An infant is observed by the instructor and the trainee in the NICU before, during and after caregiving intervention. Instructor and trainee then complete an independent write-up of an observation, goal specifications and recommendations for modification of care, and then compare and discuss.

Training Opportunities

Training is available at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Boise, Idaho. Arrangements can also be made for off-site training.*

Theoretical Introduction:

Four-hour lecture which may be attended by non-trainee participants; three-hour workshop to be attended by NIDCAP trainees; and two-hour site consultation.

Bedside Demonstration:

This demonstration is requires for trainees and strongly recommended. This day includes the parent’s path to the child, guided observation and write-up and reflective process (six to eight hours) attended by two trainees only per session.

 

Workday Bedside Demonstration:

This demonstration is highly recommended. This day includes an observation of an infant, write-up, recommendations for the infant’s care, review of the write up with formal feedback. This is a six to eight hour session with two trainees per session.

 

Critical Review of NIDCAP Write-up:

This review is mandatory and occurs after approximately 10 practice write-ups. Another mandatory review occurs just prior to scheduling a reliability session. Additional write-ups are optional.

 

Reliability Session:

Bedside observation, full write-up, formal evaluation and reflective process attended by two trainees only; and two-hour site consultation.

Off-site training fees will include additional expenses incurred for airfare, hotel, meals, etc. These arrangements must be made in advance and paid by those requesting the training.

Fee Structure

Fees vary depending upon training opportunity, site and number of trainees.

For More Information:

Karen M. Smith, BSN, RNC, Med
Developmental Care Educator
NIDCAP Trainer
St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center
190 E. Bannock Street
Boise, ID 83712
(208) 381-4374
smithka@slhs.org