Kangaroo care is a type of skin-to-skin contact between a baby and parent. Kangaroo care involves holding the infant upright against the parent’s bare chest, with skin-to-skin contact and close bonding moments between parent and newborn. A student could examine the benefits of kangaroo care on premature or low birth weight infants. Some potential benefits to explore include improved cardiorespiratory stability, better temperature regulation, enhanced brain development and infant growth, and shorter hospital stays. The student could design an educational or implementation project to promote wider use of kangaroo care in their neonatal unit.
Another important aspect of neonatal care is supporting parent-infant bonding, especially for babies in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Separation of parents from their hospitalized infants can be distressing. A student may investigate different strategies used to encourage parental involvement in infant caregiving activities like feeding, kangaroo care, and diaper changes even for babies with medical complexity. This can help assess which approaches are most effective in strengthening the parent-infant relationship during the fragile early weeks. The student could create educational materials, resources, or guidelines for nursing staff on developmental care practices that integrate parents as vital members of the healthcare team.
Infant pain management is also a critical component of neonatal care. Untreated pain in the NICU can have lasting consequences on infant neurodevelopment and stress response systems. A student may conduct an extensive literature review on the short-term and long-term impacts of pain/stress on preterm infants, comparing different pharmacological and non-pharmacological pain management techniques. The student could develop a new evidence-based neonatal unit pain/stress assessment and treatment protocol, plus staff/parent education resources, addressing both procedural and postoperative pain as well as chronic minor pain from routine care activities. Proper pain management improves clinical outcomes and is part of providing family-centered developmental care.
Another focus area relates to breastfeeding support for mothers of preterm infants. The benefits of human breast milk for premature babies are well established. Challenges like nutritional needs, limited milk production, pumping challenges, and medical complexity can disrupt a mother’s ability to successfully breastfeed her hospitalized preemie. A student may shadow lactation consultants and observe challenges experienced on the postpartum floor and NICU. The student could then create a comprehensive breastfeeding support program and guideline for mothers with preterm infants, highlighting factors like milk expression, breastmilk fortification, supplemental nursing systems, pumping techniques, and working with doctors/nurses/lactation educators as a team. The project could help more NICU babies receive the proven advantages of human breast milk.
An additional important area of focus is infant and family education prior to NICU discharge. Being discharged home with a medically fragile infant can cause significant stress and anxiety for parents, especially those without prior children or NICU experience. A student may evaluate their unit’s current discharge teaching methods, resources, and family satisfaction. The student could investigate best practices for standardized discharge education programs, develop new family-centered teaching modules and materials, and test their implementation. Follow-up after discharge would provide insight into information retention as well as new stresses facing parents adjusting to life at home with a medically complex baby. The goal is ensuring families feel fully prepared for the transition and know where to seek help with any concerns.
A student could focus on developmental and psychological support for infants discharged from the NICU. Infants born prematurely or with health issues have an increased risk of developmental delays, cognitive impairments, and mental health issues even without physical disability. The student may research the cost and benefits of various developmental follow-up programs. They could then propose a standardized developmental screening and support model for at-risk infants, from in-NICU services through outpatient follow-up after discharge. Community resources and support groups for families raising medically fragile children could also be included. The project aims to facilitate early identification and intervention to optimize outcomes for high-risk infants.
There are many important areas related to neonatal care that would provide excellent focus for a nursing capstone project. The key is selecting a topic aligned with your unit’s needs and priorities, conducting thorough research, and developing translational materials or programs that can have real benefits for patients, families, providers and the wider healthcare system. Any of the above suggestions would allow for an in-depth exploration of a critical issue and potential to improve neonatal nursing practice.