title: Nurses' Perceptions of Barriers and Facilitators Affecting the Shaken Baby Syndrome Education Initiative: An Exploratory Study of a Massachusetts Public Policy.
abstract: The objective of this study was to assess nurses' perceptions of barriers to and facilitators of implementation of the shaken baby syndrome (SBS)/abusive head trauma (AHT) public policy. A legislative Act providing for the prevention of SBS/AHT was passed in Massachusetts in November 2006. A stipulation of this Act was the provision of a program to educate parents/guardians of newborns about SBS/AHT prevention. A quantitative, cross-sectional research design with a qualitative component was used for this study. Nurses in 13 Massachusetts birthing hospitals were surveyed using a Web-based questionnaire (hosted by Qualtrics, Provo, Utah). Hospital nurses' responses (N = ∼ 922; 155 responded) revealed barriers to and facilitators of SBS/AHT guideline implementation. The disadvantage of Web-based surveys as they relate to the challenges of enlisting cooperation and a lack of direct access to the nurses may have attributed to the low response rate (17%) for this study. The outcomes of logistic regression analyses and themes from the qualitative analysis revealed a lack of SBS/AHT brochures and an inability to provide SBS/AHT education for non-English-speaking parents/guardians as barriers to SBS/AHT education. An atmosphere of supportive leadership facilitated implementation of the SBS/AHT education guidelines by nurses. It is imperative that nurse leadership support be sustained so that nurses have SBS/AHT education resources, an understanding of the SBS/AHT education guidelines, and feedback about the impact of their SBS/AHT education interventions.
authors.affiliation: Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Leslie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rideout
mesh_terms: D002649:Child Abuse / Q000517:prevention & control; D064648:Critical Care Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008404:Massachusetts; D020380:Needs Assessment; D024802:Nurse's Role; D010465:Perception; D011322:Primary Prevention / Q000458:organization & administration; D011640:Public Policy; D038642:Shaken Baby Syndrome / Q000451:nursing* / Q000517:prevention & control; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000451:nursing*