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"Nurses incorporate multiple strategies into practice to ensure safe client care, including the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) competencies of patient-centered care, teamwork and collaboration, evidence-based practice, quality improvement, safety, and informatics" (Wolters Kluwer, 2018).

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"Evidence-based practice refers to nursing care that is supported by scientific evidence rather than traditional or preferential decisions. Nursing, as a profession, must embrace this approach to health care, participate in research, and use research findings to establish new best practice evidence" (Wolters Kluwer, 2018).

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Sentara College of Health Sciences has prepared me to take a leadership role in my soon to be profession by educating me on the major concepts of safety and evidence-based practice. As a nurse, it is our commitment to always keep the patient safe. With the knowledge I've gathered over the last 2.5 years, effective communication, safety/isolation precautions, the six rights of medication safety, second nurse checks, etc. are all important to prevent errors/mistakes. In relation to safe sleep, it is our responsibility to make the community aware to keep babies safe past our care in the hospital. As for evidence-based practice, completing projects and providing care in clinical surrounded by this concept has allowed me to see the importance of it. It provides the research and support of nursing care that I will be providing to patients in the future.

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As members of the most trusted profession, nurses are sought out by our communities for advice on health-related topics (Gelfer, 2014). In regards to promoting safe sleep, the nurse's role is to educate and encourage the safest sleep situation possible, while also respecting the parents’ choices. Teaching is done at admission onto a unit and reinforced when needed. This brings awareness with hopes that the practice will be adopted once the family returns home.

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The acceptance of safe sleep practices by parents is vital to decreasing the risk of SIDS. It has been shown that the way infants are positioned for sleep in the hospital strongly influences parental practice at home (Gelfer, 2014). So it is important for nurses to model these guidelines consistently and continuously educate parents at the bedside.

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Even though nurses have the knowledge behind it, the guidelines still need to be exposed to new and tenured nurses frequently to maintain accurate information. Unfortunately, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found that parents continue to practice unsafe habits that lead to sleep related infant deaths.

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In 1994, the Back to Sleep campaign was instituted to raise awareness of the recommendation in prevention of SIDS in children under the age of one. The only exception was when the child was able to roll over by themselves that they may be left in the sleeping position that they assumed themselves. Since the initiation of this campaign, the number of infants placed supine to sleep has risen to 75.7% and the number of SIDS deaths has fallen by 50% since 1988 (Meadows-Oliver & Hendrie, 2013). Unfortunately, in 2001, infant safe sleep plateaued. Among 3,136 infants that succumbed to SIDS, only 25% of them were sleeping in a crib or on their backs when they were found; nearly 70% were not sleeping in a space designed for infant sleep, and about 64% of the infants were sharing a sleeping space (Meadows-Oliver & Hendrie, 2013). This raised the question as to what risk factors are associated with SIDS, resulting in expanding the guidelines.

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The expanded campaign, Safe to Sleep was launched in 2012 to revamp safe sleep practices. Placing infants on their backs to sleep is still highly encouraged, but additional recommendations were added to diminish the risk of all sleep-related infant deaths including suffocation, asphyxia, and entrapment. One of the recommendations is that infants sleeping in a crib should have a firm mattress covered with a tight fitted sheet (Meadows-Oliver & Hendrie, 2013). The crib should not have any soft objects such as quilts, bumper pads, and blankets to eliminate the risk for suffocation (Meadows-Oliver & Hendrie, 2013). It is also recommended that parents room-share with their infants, but do not co-sleep.

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Handing out informational pamphlets to every family with a child 1 year of age or younger upon admission on the unit (Ohio Hospital Association, 2018). Parents will have a valuable and potentially life-saving information at the reach of their hands to refer back to as a possible check-list. These pamphlets could be supplemented with posters containing safe sleep information posted in the patient rooms and in the hallways of the hospital (Ohio Hospital Association, 2018). They will ensure that the information is readily available everywhere the parents look while in the hospital.

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Mandatory staff education regarding safe sleep annually via computer based training (CBT) or face-to-face learning session. This will allow nurses to gain the confidence to provide effective teaching to families and model safe sleep practices throughout care. Learning exposure to this practice more than once will solidify the importance and details with the nurses. The education will also ensure consistency in the knowledge being delivered to families.

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Along with a pamphlet, providing sleep sacks to parents and having them demonstrate the technique will increase their use at home. When someone understands how to properly use something, there is less frustration and more cooperation. The purpose of the sack is to replace the use of loose blankets in the crib that could cause suffocation. In addition to sleeping safe, it helps babies sleep better too.

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Every year, there are thousands of sleep-related deaths among infants 1 to 12 months of age due to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) or accidental deaths from suffocation or strangulation related to the infant's sleep environment (CDC, 2018). This issue is evidence that it is imperative for healthcare professionals in the pediatric world to be up to date with current guidelines when educating families about safe sleep.

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CDC. (2018). Safe Sleep for Babies. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/safesleep/index.html

Gelfer P. (2014). Nurses’ Role in Parental Education on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Risk Reducing Strategies. Ann Nurs Pract 1(1): 1004.

Meadows-Oliver, M., & Hendrie, J. (2013). Expanded Back to Sleep Guidelines. Pediatric

Nursing, 39(1), 40-49.

Moon, R. Y., Hauck, F. R., & Colson, E. R. (2016). Safe Infant Sleep Interventions: What is the Evidence for Successful Behavior Change? Current Pediatric Reviews, 12(1), 67-75. doi:10.2174/1573396311666151026110148

Ohio Hospital Association. (2018). Starting A Hospital-Based Infant Safe Sleep Program: A step by step guide. Retrieved from https://ohiohospitals.org/OHA/media/Images/Patient%20Safety%20and%20Quality/Documents/SafeSleep/1-instructions-for-starting-a-hospital-based-safe-sleep-program.pdf

Wolters Kluwer. (2018). Benefits of a Concept-Based Curriculum in Nursing [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://nursingeducation.lww.com/blog.entry.html/2017/01/28/benefits_of_a_concep-agYv.html

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(Moon et al., 2016)