Rehabilitation and Therapy Commons^™

Facilitators And Barriers To Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Follow-Up Program Attendance: A Critically Appraised Topic, Ciara Clark, Mariko Rudy, Lauren Maher

School of Occupational Therapy Master's Capstone Projects (2016-2021)

Kari Tanta, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA is the rehabilitation manager of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and the NICU follow-up (NFU) program at Valley Medical Center (VMC). To address the problem of decreased NFU attendance, the following clinical question was asked: “For families with an infant who has been discharged from a NICU, which factors promote or discourage utilization of follow-up services?” Numerous facilitators and barriers affecting attendance were identified relating to severity of infant illness, parent socioeconomic status and education levels, and pragmatic factors including timing of scheduling.

Knowledge translation activities undertaken included collaboration with University of Washington (UW) …