Developmental supportive care: its implementation on a Scottish neonatal intensive care unit

As neonatal care is a relatively new and developing field there is great scope for neonatal nurses to be involved in measuring and evaluating care and moving forward in line with medical advances. Such advances have resulted in more and more premature infants having a greater chance of survival. However despite state of the art medicine, nursing care and technology, developmental assessment and care needs are often regarded as follow-up issues. Within the available literature there is a great consistency highlighting the environment of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) as being inappropriate for the premature infant's developing nervous system. The staff of the NICU have, therefore, a responsibility and commitment to modify the environment and care giving techniques to support these fragile infants.