Community Health Nursing Assessment of Neurodevelopment in High-risk Infants |
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| Authors: | SUSAN RITCHIE RIV MPH PNP CAROL WILTGEN TROTTER RN MPH CPNP |
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| Institution: | Susan Ritchie is a pediatric nurse practitioner in the Department of Pediatrics at West Virginia University. Ms. Ritchie is a member of Sigma Theta Tau, the American Public Health Association, and ANA.;Carol Wiltgen Trotter is the coordinator of the Neonatal Nurse Clinician Program at St. John's Mercy Medical Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Ms. Trotter is a member of NAACOG, the National Perinatal Association, and Sigma Theta Tau. |
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| Abstract: | All infants discharged from designated perinatal center neonatal intensive care units in Illinois are referred for follow-up home visits by community health nurses. These visits provide parental support, teaching, and anticipatory guidance plus physical and developmental assessment of the infant. The maternal and child nursing consultants who coordinate this follow-up program are frequently called upon to assist the community health nurses in physical/developmental assessment techniques. The neurodevelopmental component of the assessment, including areas of alertness, tone, head circumference, vision and hearing screening, plus primitive reflexes, is described. |
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