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Quantitative Research Article Review

Stephanie Ciarkowski

Seton Hill University

SNU 315-01: Research and Evidence-Based Practice

Dr. Kondas

September 22, 2021

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Summary

Inspiration for this study came from the desire to create a feeding pathway for

stable preterm infants in order to facilitate timely hospital discharges.The problem

statement leading to this study being performed states that “current inconsistencies

exist in transitioning preterm infants from enteral to oral feeding due to variability in

practice amongst physicians, and variability of nursing experience in neonatal wards”

(Chua et al., 2019). This research article was conducted to create a more defined

pathway for nurses to progress oral feedings in preterm infants in a Special Care

Nursery (SCN) in a public hospital in Singapore (Chua et al., 2019). It also aimed to

create a cross-disciplinary program led by Speech Language Therapists (SLT) in the

hopes to educate nurses on infant feeding and skills to implement the new feeding

pathway (Chua et al., 2019). The research method used included comparing milestones

of feeding in infants with previous known risk factors and other data. Nurses took a

pre-test and post-test to see how the study had changed their knowledge on infant

feeding. They then were also able to provide their opinions on how the new feeding

pathway and if it has helped them in practice. The most prominent and notable results

of this study were that infants who were fed under the new feeding pathway were

discharged 4.5 days earlier than the infants in the control group. The nurses also had

noticeably higher test scores for the post-test than the pre-test.

Analysis

The abstract addresses many vital points to this study. It describes the

background, aim, method, results, and conclusion. The background explains what the
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problem behind performing this study is; problems transitioning stable preterm infants to

oral feedings. The aim is what they intend to gain from the study which was to create a

protocol-driven feeding pathway for preterm infants and to equip the nurses with the

knowledge to follow through with said protocol. The method included comparing feeding

m milestones of the infants with retrospective controls using a matched-pairs design.

Results showed an improvement in discharge time and nurse knowledge of the new

feeding pathway. The conclusion drawn from the study is that “early initiation of a

systematic nurse-led feeding protocol to transition stable preterm infants towards oral

feeding facilitated timely discharge planning and earlier hospital discharge” (Chua et al.,

2019).

Some strengths of the article include specific criteria for consideration and

including the nurses in the study. The criteria for the infants was very specific; infants

born between January and May 2016, age no more than 7 days old, and birth weight no

more than 50 grams. Since the nurses were also included, they were able to see how

the practices were being implemented and if they worked. Some weaknesses of the

article include location and sample size. This experiment was performed in Singapore,

which lessens its relevance to the U.S. population. Also the sample size was 22 infants

and even dropped down to 10. It would have been better to branch out and add more

subjects to the study.

Conclusion

This study can be applied to current practice as a way to ensure timely discharge

for stable preterm infants. It aids in creating a manageable timeline as to where a

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newborn should be within normal oral feedings in order to remove their nasogastric

tubes. I could incorporate this into my own practice by using their steps from the study

to help progress the oral feedings for preterm infants.

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References

Mei Chien Chua, Desiree Ruo Wen Lau, Phoebe Elizabeth Pei Jun Lim, Charmaine

Shuwen Ong, Evelyn Ya Lian Tay, Selena Ee-Li Young. Standardised Nurse-Led

Feeding Pathway for Stable Preterm Infants Facilitates Timely Hospital

Discharge. Volume 46, No. 2. May-August 2019.

https://content.ebscohost.com/ContentServer.asp?T=P&P=AN&K=141094725&S

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