Nurse to infant vocalisation during nursing care: Does it vary between painful and non-painful procedures?

Abstract

Supporting an infant's mental health in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) requires care-givers to be attuned to emotional as well as physical needs. Exposure to human voices has been found to be beneficial to preterm infants. Levels of vocal soothing in one NICU were documented through two observational studies; study A recorded the numbers of words spoken by nurses to infants during 50 heel prick procedures, while study B recorded the numbers of words spoken during 50 napkin change procedures. The findings suggest that nurses do not routinely use vocal soothing during these procedures. Nurses spoke more words to infants during napkin changes than during heel prick procedures (6% vs 2% of the procedure). A psychoanalytic theoretical framework is applied to potentially explain these results. Talking soothingly to preterm infants may be facilitated through the introduction of the concept of ‘companionship’.