Mary E. Coughlin - Trauma-Informed Care in the NICU: Evidenced-Based Practice Guidelines for Neonatal Clinicians

As a neonatal nurse and educator for more than 30 years I have seen firsthand the impact our neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) have on infants and their families. While not a new concept, few health professionals understand or necessarily like the term trauma-informed care, yet that is what our neonates and families need. This book addresses the most important issues that impact neonatal care. Using evidence to support the interventions may lead more health professionals to support the implementation. Use of a competency model will assist supervisors in measuring outcomes for both the health professionals own performance and the care provided. Trauma-informed care supports family-centered integrative, transdisciplinary care, which is vital to the provision of safe, high-quality neonatal care.

Carole Kenner, PhD, NNP, RN, FAAN
Carol Kuser Loser Dean and Professor
School of Nursing, Health, and Exercise Science
The College of New Jersey

Mary Coughlins new book, Trauma-Informed Care in the NICU: Evidence-Based Practice Guidelines for Neonatal Clinicians, draws on the growing evidence regarding the effectiveness of strength-based, individualized, developmentally supportive and relationship-based care delivery in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) setting. Much of this evidence has accumulated over the last three decades due to the international Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program (NIDCAP) research trials, which demonstrate, enduring into school age, improved brain development and overall health and developmental outcomes, as well as enhanced parent competence and lowered stress. Ms. Coughlins sensitive and thoughtful work emphasizes the significant trauma that parents and infants, as well as staff, experience in the face of intensive newborn medical care. It will give pause to even the most hardened intensivists, who may attempt to wall off the feelings that come from recognizing the traumatizing events they must deliver repeatedly in the course of a NICU day, thus denying the humanity of infants and families, as well as their own. Coughlins text supports clinicians in recapturing their true caring personhoods and reenergizes their emotional attunement to caring with compassion and technical excellence for the infants and families entrusted to them. This book is a must for every clinician and caregiver in newborn intensive care nurseries everywhere.

Heidelise Als, PhD
Professor of Psychology (Department of Psychiatry)
Harvard Medical School
Director, Neurobehavioral Infant and Child Studies
Boston Childrens Hospital
Founder, NIDCAP Federation International

Ms. Coughlins work on trauma-informed care in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) provides the neonatal (and health care) community with a sound and reliable resource for providing excellent age-appropriate care. She articulates and substantiates the necessity for improved and consistent practices to positively affect both short- and long-term outcomes for premature infants. Because of the innate link between neonatal therapy and trauma-informed care, Ms. Coughlin has delivered the keynote speech on this topic at our national conference and I have personally recommended her first book time and time againto our membership, to health care leaders, and to parents of premature infants.

Sue Ludwig, OTR/L
President and Founder
National Association of Neonatal Therapists (NANT)

This important new book by an experienced and knowledgeable neonatal clinician provides a practical and evidence-based approach to apply the Institute of Medicines six aims for health care improvement to the care of medically fragile neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) patients. A clear message is the central role of the neonatal nurse as a member of the transdisciplinary team in providing the optimal environment for age-appropriate care and family engagement to ensure the best possible outcomes.

Ann R. Stark, MD, FAAP
Professor of Pediatrics
Division of Neonatology
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine

Trauma-Informed Care in the NICU

Mary E. Coughlin, MS, NNP, RNC-E, is an inspirational speaker, motivational coach, and transformational consultant. With a clinical background that spans more than 30 years, Ms. Coughlin is the internationally recognized expert in the field of trauma-informed, age-appropriate care in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Ms. Coughlin is a graduate of Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, where she received her baccalaureate and masters degrees in nursing. Following 7 years of active duty service in the U.S. Air Force Nurses Corps, Ms. Coughlin transitioned to civilian practice at the Brigham and Womens Hospital NICU in Boston, assuming roles as staff nurse, charge nurse, and neonatal nurse practitioner. After a 1-year interim faculty position, Ms. Coughlin realized her passion for education and currently provides multimodal continuing professional education for interdisciplinary neonatal clinicians aimed at translating evidence-based research into clinical practice for measurable results. She is a published author and keynote speaker for national and international conferences.

Trauma-Informed Care in the NICU

Evidence-Based Practice Guidelines for Neonatal Clinicians

Mary E. Coughlin, MS, NNP, RNC-E

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