Topic 1: The Health Assessment of Infants 

Topic 1 Assignment 

Environmental Factors and Health Promotion: Accident Prevention and Safety Promotion for Parents and Caregivers of Infants 

The growth, development, and learned behaviors that occur during the first year of infancy have a direct effect on the individual throughout a lifetime. For this assignment, research an environmental factor that poses a threat to the health or safety of infants and develop a health promotion that can be presented to caregivers. 

Create a 10-12 slide PowerPoint health promotion, with speaker notes, that outlines a teaching plan. For the presentation of your PowerPoint, use Loom to create a voice over or a video. Include an additional slide for the Loom link at the beginning, and an additional slide for references at the end. 

Include the following in your presentation: 

1. Describe the selected environmental factor. Explain how the environmental factor you selected can potentially affect the health or safety of infants. 

2. Create a health promotion plan that can be presented to caregivers to address the environmental factor and improve the overall health and well-being of infants. 

3. Offer recommendations on accident prevention and safety promotion as they relate to the selected environmental factor and the health or safety of infants. 

4. Offer examples, interventions, and suggestions from evidence-based research. At least three scholarly resources are required. Two of the three resources must be peer-reviewed and no more than 6 years old. 

5. Provide readers with two community resources, a national resource, and a Web-based resource. Include a brief description and contact information for each resource. 

6. In developing your PowerPoint, take into consideration the health care literacy level of your target audience, as well as the demographic of the caregiver/patient (socioeconomic level, language, culture, and any other relevant characteristic of the caregiver) for which the presentation is tailored 

Refer to the resource, “Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations,” located in the Student Success Center, for additional guidance on completing this assignment in the appropriate style. 

Refer to the resource, “Loom,” located in the Student Success Center, for additional guidance on recording your presentation. 

While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and documentation of sources should be presented using APA formatting guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. 

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion. 

You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to the LopesWrite Technical Support articles for assistance. 

Topic 1 DQ 1 

Describe the effect of extremely low birth weight babies on the family and community. Consider short-term and long-term impacts, socioeconomic implications, the need for ongoing care, and comorbidities associated with prematurity. Explain how disparities relative to ethnic and cultural groups may contribute to low birth weight babies. Identify one support service within your community to assist with preterm infants and their families and explain how the service adequately addresses the needs of the community, or a population in your community. Provide the link to the resource in your post. 

Topic 1 DQ 2 

Consider the following patient scenario: 

A mother comes in with 9-month-old girl. The infant is 68.5cm in length (25th percentile per CDC growth chart), weighs 6.75kg (5th percentile per CDC growth chart), and has a head circumference of 43cm (25th percentile per CDC growth chart).  

Describe the developmental markers a nurse should assess for a 9-month-old female infant. Discuss the recommendations you would give the mother. Explain why these recommendations are based on evidence-based practice. 

Describe the effect of extremely low birth weight babies on the family and community. Consider short-term and long-term impacts, socioeconomic implications, the need for ongoing care, and comorbidities associated with prematurity. Explain how disparities relative to ethnic and cultural groups may contribute to low birth weight babies. Identify one support service within your community to assist with preterm infants and their families and explain how the service adequately addresses the needs of the community, or a population in your community. Provide the link to the resource in your post. 

Re: Topic 1 DQ 1 
 

The first year of life is extremely important for the development of infants. The first year is the time that an infant develops not only physically but psychosocially, and thus reach development milestones. Extremely low birth weight can restrict an infant’s development which can impact the infant but also their family and community. 

Extremely low birth weight can cause a delay in the progression of development and can decrease the bond the parents have with their infant, for instance, a low birth weight infant may not have the mental development necessary to cry and/or alert their caregiver of needs they may have, for example hungry cry and/or pain cry. Therefore, the infant may not be able to build that bond/trust with their caregiver. If an infant is extremely premature, then perhaps the infant will have illnesses or physical delays which can cause strain on parents’ relationships but can also cause a huge financial debt/stress on the family as a whole. A child/infant with a developmental delay can put some strain on a family that may not have been expected or the family may not be prepared for. 

Racial and cultural disparities do have an effect on babies and can place a family at a higher risk of having a pre-term infant. Take for example a woman of a lower socioeconomic status who may not seek appropriate prenatal care necessary to deliver a child at term. There are programs that provide resources to the under privileged and one of them is the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program; this program provides resources for  women and their children who’s income is not sufficient for proper nutrition via debit card for the family. It also provides physical assessments for the infant/child every month for the first four months, at the 6th, 8th, 12th, and 18th month mark and then annually so that they also receive their scheduled vaccines. 

Reference: 

Green, S. Z. (2018).  Health assessment: Foundations for effective practice. Chapter 1: Health assessment of the infant. Retrieved from https://lc.gcumedia.com/nrs434vn/health-assessment-foundations-for-effective-practice/v1.1/#/chapter/1 

Women, Infants and Children. (2020). https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CFH/DWICSN/pages/program-landing1.aspx 

This is an elaborative and succinct discussion; you have captured all the aspects in the question. Babies with low birth weight are common given unavoidable prevailing conditions during conceptions and pregnancy. Mothers may suffer complications that may lead to low weight. From your discussion, it is true that extremely low birth weight can cause a delay in the progression of development and can decrease the bond the parents have with their infant. Babies with low birth weight are delicate and needs a lot of care; this explains why most of these babies are placed in the nursey immediately after birth (World Health Organization, 2016). Indeed problems associated with racial and cultural practices may lead to children with low birth weight. Given low economic status, some expectant mothers are not able to afford effective medical care during pregnancy. However, today there are different programs rolled out by different governmental and private institutions to provide affordable or free services to the expectant mothers. These services often include provision of proper medication and delivery processes.  

References 

World Health Organization. (2016). WHO recommendations on antenatal care for a positive pregnancy experience. World Health Organization.    

Topic 1 DQ 1 

Health Assessment 

Studies show that the community and the total family are significantly impacted by children who are born with extremely low birth (Joyce, Goodman-Bryan & Hardin, 2016). Moreover, the negative impact on family in specific domains is greater in the extremely low birth weight group in financial impact, caretaker burden, and familial burden than any other group. Higher parent/socioeconomic risk, neurodevelopmental outcomes, and the functional impact of low birth weight predict greater family impact within the extremely low birth weight group (Joyce, Goodman-Bryan & Hardin, 2016). 

African-Americans and Latinos have elevated risks for chronic disease and death, and these risks are particularly acute among their youngest members. Low birth weight is recognized as one of the primary factors contributing to racial/ethnic disparities as the African-American low birth weight rate has been at least twice the corresponding rate for Whites for decades (Joyce, Goodman-Bryan & Hardin, 2016). 

Low birth weight infants who survive the neonatal (first 28 days) and post-neonatal (28-365 days) periods can have problems that extend into adulthood (CDCP, 2019). For instance, low birth weight children are more susceptible to cerebral palsy, deafness, blindness, and other serious illnesses (CDCP, 2019). Furthermore, low birth weight children are more likely to perform poorly on developmental assessments than are normal birth weight children, to need special education, to repeat a grade at some point in their schooling, and to have attention deficit disorder (CDCP, 2019). 

States have expanded access to prenatal care to mitigate factors that increase the risk of having a low birth weight baby, such as a mother’s tobacco, alcohol or drug use and chronic health issues. States are utilizing programs including intensive case management, mental health counseling, assigning mothers a medical home, home visits, and guidance from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Neonatal Outcomes Improvement Project (Smith, Bentley-Edwards, El-Amin & Darity, 2018). 

References 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, (2019). Infant Mortality. April 21, 2020. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/maternalinfanthealth/infantmortality.htm 

Joyce, C., Goodman-Bryan, M. & Hardin, A. (2016). Preterm birth and low birth weight. Urban Child Institute website. http://www.urbanchildinstitute.org/sites/all/files/2010-10-01-PTB-and-LBW.pdf. Published October 1, 2012. Accessed April 21, 2020. 

Smith, I., Bentley-Edwards, K., El-Amin, S., & Darity, W. (2018). Fighting at birth: Eradicating the black-white infant mortality gap report. Retrieved from https://socialequity.duke.edu/sites/socialequity.duke.edu/files/site-images/EradicatingBlackInfantMortality-March2018-DRAFT4.pdf 

  

Thank you for presenting this great work. Low birth weight is indeed a common problem in the society. However, with the advancement in care and medication, the problem has become manageable to some extent. Today, there are various medications that can be used to enhance development of foetus, also, there are advanced medical practices geared to help expectant mothers through the complications often experienced during pregnancy. From your discussion, it is true that African-Americans and Latinos have elevated risks for chronic disease and death, and these risks are particularly acute among their youngest members (De Masi, 2017). This is attributed to the low social economic status and lack of opportunity to access appropriate care in the advanced medical facilities. Also, it is true that low birth weight contributes to the racial differences to some extent. However, with the advancement in public health and collaboration from both the government and private sectors, there are programs that are meant to reduce the cases of low birth weight in various communities.  

References 

De Masi, S., Bucagu, M., Tunçalp, Ö., Peña-Rosas, J. P., Lawrie, T., Oladapo, O. T., & Gülmezoglu, M. (2017). Integrated person-centered health care for all women during pregnancy: implementing World Health Organization recommendations on antenatal care for a positive pregnancy experience. Global Health: Science and Practice, 5(2), 197-201.