The University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago NIDCAP Training Center and developmental care program is housed within the Newborn Intensive Care Nurseries and administered under the Division of Women and Children’s Services.
The Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is a 52-bed Level III unit and provides comprehensive care for women experiencing complicated, high-risk pregnancies and newborns with special care needs. UIMC accepts referrals and has experienced maternal and neonatal teams to transport high risk mothers or babies requiring Level III care.
On June 15th, 2006, the University of Illinois Medical Center officially became a NIDCAP Training Center. It is the 10th such center in the United States and the 16th center internationally.
The Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program (NIDCAP), developed by Heidelise Als, PhD and her colleagues, is a comprehensive approach to care that is developmentally supportive and individualized to the infant’s goals and level of stability. Further it seeks to support families and the professionals who care for them. It provides and trains professionals within this NIDCAP framework. One component of the model of care is the direct observation of the infants within their environments in the newborn intensive care setting. Using a detailed observational tool, often referred to as the NIDCAP observation, the infant’s behaviors can be interpreted as steady and relaxed or as representing stress or discomfort. Members of the caregiving team observe and interpret behaviors of infants within their environment and their reactions to care they receive. Based on these observations, developmental care plans are developed that best support the infant’s overall goals and efforts at self regulation. The NIDCAP model, which includes the observations described above, describes the development of an evermore supportive and developmentally appropriate nursery environment (from the actual physical space to the delivery of care). Additionally, it describes the increasing nurturance of the family and the staff, and the continued education and mutual collaboration of the staff (from the direct caregivers through the administrative leadership).
The NIDCAP approach to care requires indepth training and provides a highly valuable
resource in support of developmental support and care provision by professionals and families. The University of Illinois Medical Center began the process of becoming a NIDCAP Training Center in 1998 when the Irving Harris Foundation awarded the University a grant to develop the Training Center. The two NIDCAP Trainers, Jennifer Hofherr, OTR/L, and Jean Powlesland, MS, RN are now certified to train professional staff and support the change process at contracted facilities.
For more information call Jean Powlesland at 312-996-1747 or email her at mailto:jpowlesl@uic.edu
