A 40 minute presentation by Heidelise Als, PhD followed by a 20 minute Question & Answer session moderated by Deborah Buehler, PhD.
This webinar is designed for any and all healthcare professionals as well as parents involved in newborn intensive care.
Upon completion of this educational activity, participants should be able to:
1. List at least three reasons why it is necessary for parents to be involved and integrated fully into their infantsÕ lives and care in the hospital setting.
2. List four major channels of communication readily observable in all hospitalized infantsÕ behavior.
3. Gain security in interpreting an individual infantÕs behavior and infer from the infantÕs behavior the infantÕs current goal(s), and thus recommend care strategies and/or adapt their own care to the infantÕs apparent current goals.
Heidelise Als, PhD, Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Senior Associate in Psychiatry, and Director of Neurobehavioral Infant and Child Studies, Boston ChildrenÕs Hospital Boston, Boston Massachusetts, and Research Associate in Newborn Medicine at the Brigham and WomenÕs Hospital.
Dr. Als was a clinician and researcher, who was concerned with the neurodevelopment of fullterm, high risk and preterm newborns, as well as the effect of environment and care and the parentsÕ role on brain development. Her goal was to improve the future for all newborns and especially those born early and/or with special challenges requiring intensive medical care.
Dr. Als, the originator of the Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program (NIDCAP) was the director of the first NICU based program dedicated to training and implementing this approach, established in 1982, the National NIDCAP Training Center, based at Boston ChildrenÕs Hospital and the Brigham and WomenÕs Hospital. She is the founder of the NIDCAP Federation International (NFI), a charitable organization with the mission to assure NIDCAP care for all newborns and families world-wide. Her research has documented significant improvement in the health and neurodevelopment of preterm infants, who receive NIDCAP care compared to those, cared for in traditional ways. Her work has changed the training and education of staff as well as the design of and care delivered in NICUs in the US and globally.
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