Bathing Premature Infants: Physiological and Behavioral Consequences in The American Journal of Critical Care was the subject of this critique, which discusses its validity. The paper was published in 1998. This paper has eight pages and only the primary source was used.
Name of Research Paper File: D0_MTbatinf.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
This is particularly true among premature infants, also called "neonates." There are questions, however, whether it is more harmful to preemies to be removed from their incubators (and source of
oxygen) to endure stimulation in the form of a sponge bath. This is one of the questions that Katherine L. Peters attempts
to answer in her article "Bathing Premature Infants: Physiological and Behavioral Consequences," which was published in the American Journal of Critical Care in 1998. In this paper, well attempt to
examine the solidness of her study and her arguments. Problem Statement and Research Question Ms. Peters begins her paper with a very
viable statement - namely that while routine procedures are an essential component when it comes to taking care of preterm infants, some of these procedures performed may not necessarily be
in the infants best interests - even the most innocuous seeming procedures can spell trouble for a premature infant. One of these standard, routine procedures is sponge bathing of the
infant; typically a biweekly procedure carried out by nurses in North American Neonatal ICUs. It is not necessarily the bathing that
Peters is concerned about, but rather, the fact that there has been little evidence that such bathing is beneficial; that the procedure doesnt support a family-centered approach to care (as
parents are rarely involved in bathing with premature infants); and because infants are bathed in the middle of the night, when nurses have the time available.
The research question that Peters attempts to answer through her work is how disruptive standard bathing procedures are to premature infants, and whether or not