Abstract
Introduction: The purpose of this quality improvement (QI) project was to evaluate the effectiveness of a comprehensive safe sleep program at a Midwestern pediatric inpatient hospital.|Method: This project used the FADE method of QI. The safe sleep program consisted of four elements: an educational presentation for inpatient staff, room signs demonstrating safe sleep guidelines, a brochure for parents to read, and use of an interactive educational smart phone application by parents. A pre-test/post-test format was used to measure change in staff and parental knowledge following education. Parental satisfaction with the educational materials was measured using a Likert scale.|Results: The average pre-test score for inpatient staff members (n=25) was 71%. After education, the average post-test score improved to 94% (p<.01). Staff improved in identifying "back only" as the safest sleeping position (pre-test: 56%, post-test: 100%; p<.01). Additionally, staff increased their knowledge in identifying protective factors for SIDS (immunizations: 32% pre-test, 100% post-test, p<.01; pacifier use at time of sleep: 32% pre-test, 100% post-test, p<.01; breast-feeding: 80% pre-test, 100% post-test, p=0.063). The average pre-test score for parents (n=19) was 77% compared to the average post-test score of 80% following education. The mean Likert score (5=strongly agree) for helpfulness of the educational materials was 4.12 for the room signs, 4.29 for the informational brochures, and 4.2 for the safe sleep smart phone application.|Discussion: Staff members working in the pediatric acute care setting benefited from safe sleep education. All methods of safe sleep education were rated positively by parents. Parents perceived the use of a smart phone application for safe sleep education to be comparable in helpfulness to alternative methods. Offering multiple educational interventions may cater to various parental learning styles.