NICU discharge preparation and transition planning: introduction.

The National Perinatal Association (NPA) coordinated a multidisciplinary work group to develop guidelines and recommendations for Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) discharge preparation and thus the transition from NICU to home for infants admitted to the NICU and their families. In this section, we explore the concepts of NICU discharge readiness as well as transition planning and preparation. We describe the process that was used to develop the guidelines and recommendations as well as the timeline for the work. NPA hopes that the readers will find the Interdisciplinary Guidelines and Recommendations for NICU Discharge Preparation and Transition Planning to be beneficial, useful, and pertinent.