The Necessity of Implementing Clustered Care in Preterm Infants

Abstract

Clustered care has been recommended as one of the essential developmental care interventions for promoting sleep in preterm infants, which can improve the neurodevelopment of the preterm infant during the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) hospitalization period.1 Clustered care means clustering or grouping several nursing care procedures performed together instead of spacing them out over time. The main goal of clustering care is to allow the premature infants to rest for longer periods and avoid handling and disturbing their sleep pattern. It has been suggested that clustered care should be considered as a main care method.2

Keywords

• clustered care
• neonatal intensive care units
• premature infant