Outcome of Nurse-Led Educational Intervention On Synactive Theory of Development Among Nurses in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Selected Hospitals, Lagos State, Nigeria

The term synaction refers to the relationship between all the subsystem in the neonate and how instability in one system will affect all other subsystem. Inadequate knowledge of Synactive Theory of Development (STD) in the care of neonate may lead to short- or long-term complications. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the level of knowledge pre and post intervention program on STD in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in the three selected hospitals. A quasi-experimental design was employed for this study. Total enumeration was adopted to include 50 neonatal nurses. Data were collected using a well-structured questionnaires pre and post intervention. Findings showed that more of the participants 68% had an average knowledge at pre intervention while at post intervention more than half of neonatal nurses had above average knowledge 74% about STD. Assessment on participants hospital and year of experience mean score= 23.76 while only 2 of the participants were found below average knowledge after the intervention. The hypothesis on the knowledge of STD in the three hospitals revealed significance difference in pre and post mean score knowledge of synactive theory in the three selected hospitals in Lagos State. In Massey hospital (mean difference = 7.89, t(_df)=6.21(₂₃),  p<0.05),  Randle hospital (mean difference = 5.85,  t(_df)= 2.83(₁₁), p<0.05 ) and for Ifako hospital (mean difference = 3.33, t(_df)= 2.50(₁₃), p<0.05). In conclusion, the intervention program had been an attractive vehicle to help in better implementation of developmental care practices on neonates. Therefore, the nurse-led educational intervention training on STD has improved knowledge on STD. It was recommended among others that regular educative re-training should be organized to NICU nurses.

Keywords: Educational Intervention, Outcome, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), Nurses, Synactive Theory of Development (STD),