The Safety of Body Wraps on Skin-to-Skin Care in the Neonatal Population: A Pilot Study.

BACKGROUND: Despite well-established benefits of skin-to-skin care (SSC) for preterm infants and parents, standardized guidelines for implementation do not exist. Furthermore, the literature offers little evidence-based information to guide best practice. PURPOSE: To discover whether SSC using a body wrap to hold preterm infants would increase the duration of SSC, decrease parental stress during SSC, and minimize adverse events to ensure that body wraps are safe and feasible. METHODS: Twenty-nine dyads of parents and preterm infants younger than 34 weeks postmenstrual age were enrolled. The first 15 dyads to meet inclusion criteria were assigned to a standard of care group for SSC with no body wrap. The remaining 14 dyads were assigned to an experimental group for SSC with a body wrap. Each dyad performed 2 SSC holds. Parents completed the Parental Stressor Scale and Parent Feedback Form. Adverse events were also documented. RESULTS: No statistically significant differences were found between the 2 groups in total SSC time ( P = .33), the number of adverse events ( P = .31 for major events; P = .38 for minor events), average parental stress ( P = .22), and parental confidence performing SSC ( P = .18). IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE AND RESEARCH: This study found that SSC with a body wrap is safe for preterm infants in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). This is the first study to explore the use, safety, and effectiveness of body wraps during SSC with preterm infants in an NICU. Future research should be conducted with larger sample sizes to further evaluate the safety and efficacy.

Managing chronic pain after breast cancer treatments: are web-based interventions the future?

PURPOSE OF THE REVIEW: Chronic post-treatment pain in breast cancer affects a high proportion of patients. Symptom burden and financial costs are increasingly impacting patients and healthcare systems because of improved treatments and survival rates. Supporting long-term breast cancer symptoms using novel methodology has been examined, yet few have explored the opportunity to utilise these interventions for prevention. This review aims to explore the need for, range of, and effectiveness of such interventions. RECENT FINDINGS: Three papers describe risk factors for chronic pain, with six recent papers describing the use of interventions for acute pain in the surgical setting. The evidence for the effectiveness of these interventions to improve pain management in this setting is limited but tentatively positive. The results have to take into account the variation between systems and limited testing. SUMMARY: Multiple types of intervention emerged and appear well accepted by patients. Most assessed short-term impact and did not evaluate for reduction in chronic pain. Such interventions require rigorous effectiveness testing to meet the growing needs of post-treatment pain in breast cancer. A detailed understanding of components of web-based interventions and their individual impact on acute pain and chronic pain is needed within future optimisation trials. Their effectiveness as preventative tools are yet to be decided.

Evaluating the efficacy of wearable biofeedback on the outcomes of exercise interventions in people with chronic non-specific spinal pain: protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Wearable neuromuscular and biomechanical biofeedback technology has the potential to improve patient outcomes by facilitating exercise interventions. We will conduct a systematic review to examine whether the addition of wearable biofeedback to exercise interventions improves pain, disability and quality of life beyond exercise alone for adults with chronic non-specific spinal pain. Specific effects on clinical, physiological, psychological, exercise adherence and safety outcomes will also be examined. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A systematic search will be conducted from inception to February 2024. Full articles in the English language will be included. MEDLINE, PubMed, CINAHL, EMBASE, Web of Science, PsycINFO, AMED, SPORTDiscus, CENTRAL databases, clinical trial registries and ProQuest (PQDT) will be used to search for eligible studies. Grey literature and conference proceedings (2022-2024) will be searched for relevant reports. Randomised controlled trials using wearable neuromuscular or kinematic biofeedback devices as an adjunct to exercise interventions for the treatment of chronic spinal pain will be included in this systematic review. The comparators will be wearable biofeedback with exercise versus exercise alone, or wearable biofeedback with exercise versus placebo and exercise. Risk of bias will be assessed using Cochrane Back Review Group criteria and the quality of evidence using Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation recommendations. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The systematic review will be based on published studies, and therefore, does not require ethical approval. The study results will be submitted for publication in an international, open-access, peer-reviewed journal and shared through conferences and public engagement. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42023481393.

Embedding clinical research in pre-registration nursing and midwifery programmes.

Background: Within the UK, there is a goal that research is embedded into everyday healthcare practice. Currently education provided to students at pre-registration level is theoretical, with little focus on clinical research delivery. Aims: The paper's aim is to report on the development and evaluation of a pre-registration clinical research resource for nursing and midwifery students with direct application to clinical settings and patient care outcomes. Methods: An initial survey assessed whether the learning resource was useful for nursing pre-registration students. Based on the findings, alongside expert stakeholder input, adaptations were made to the learning resources and a second survey re-evaluated the learning resources. Survey findings were analysed using descriptive statistics. Free text responses were thematically grouped. Results: Ninety-seven pre-registration nursing students responded. Most students agreed that they had enjoyed using the resources, had improved understanding of clinical research, anticipated being actively involved in research and would consider a future clinical research role. Conclusions: The learning resources can help overcome barriers to research engagement by nurses and midwives. The results demonstrate that research can be incorporated into clinical, educational and academic roles, highlighting their worth in supporting the clinical research workforce.