Santa Clara NICU nurses have taken their extraordinary nursing care above and beyond by reading to babies under their care to help benefit brain growth and development. Although reading to the infants is something they do year-round, the team was recently recognized for winning the annual Babies with Books read-a-thon.
The friendly competition included over 190 NICUs from around the world. During the 7 days of the read-a-thon, Santa Clara NICU nurses, leaders, and parents recorded 1,151 reading sessions which was the equivalent of each baby in the NICU being read to 12 to 13 times per day. Watch a short video about those efforts here.
“Reading promotes wellness for the neonates, the parents, and the nurses themselves,” said Stacy Alves, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, Chief Nurse Executive at the Santa Clara Medical Center. “Our professional registered nurses provide the extraordinary care on a daily basis and this read-a-thon helps bring awareness to the highly specialized needs of this patient population and a celebration of the harrowing journeys of these babies and families.”
Santa Clara registered nurses have coordinated the read-a-thon for the past few years, and are what Alves described as a shining example of what makes Kaiser Permanente so great. She continued, “They have taken the empirical evidence around developmental needs of pre-term babies in the intensive care setting, integrated that with our nursing theory of Caring Science to create a reading program that meets the holistic needs of our babies and their families.”
The work of the Santa Clara team was also presented at the National Association of Neonatal Nurse conferences to spread this best practice beyond the walls of our organization, and they were also featured in the San Jose Mercury News, and on NBC Bay Area.
“I could not be more proud of this team, and how they are advancing the care delivery for this vulnerable and precious patient population,” added Alves.