Healthcare Professionals
Dear Healthcare Provider:
Thank you for accessing our site for information on how to implement a hospital-based infant sleep safety program. We have tried to make the site comprehensive and have included all the documents that we use in our program. The program was established in 2008 and we have research that supports its usefulness for educating both staff and new families. The following paragraphs will outline how each of the documents is used. Feel free to make use of any or all of tools in our package and do not hesitate to contact us with any questions, comments, or constructive criticisms. All of the documents can be found on this website at “Hospital Initiative Toolkit.” We are always looking for ways to improve and expand this program. We want to make this program the best it can be because we all have the same goal: to make babies as safe as possible in their sleep environment and eliminate as many sudden and unexpected deaths as possible.
Documents 1 and 2 provide an overview of the infant safe sleep initiative. The first document has step by step details on instituting the entire program and the second document is a schematic overview. Documents 3 and 4 are posters to which you can add your area information. Document 5 is a sample hospital safe sleep policy and document 6 is an extensive manual and toolkit with scripted information for providers to use with families.
Documents 7 and 8 are the acknowledgement forms that parents sign to show that they have received and understand the information on infant sleep safety. Documents 9 and 10 are the safe sleep educational flip chart and instructions on how to assemble it. Documents 11 and 12 are the non-compliance waiver forms. Document 13 is a nursing self-education module and 14 is a comprehensive self-education book for the public.
Documents 15-17 are supplements not explained in the main document. The tickets can be attached to bassinets or cribs as a reminder and take-home item on infant sleep safety. We use them in the NICU to identify infants who are ready to be kept on the back in a “home sleep environment.” We also try to make sure parents receive their education around the same time so we can then present with document 17, a safe sleep graduation certificate, which can be promoted as a developmental milestone and kept as part of the baby book.
Document 18 is a sample letter to share with other healthcare providers in the community to introduce them to your hospital’s safe sleep program. Document 19 is a sample information sheet you can share with the press when you are ready to promote the establishment of your program. The last 2 documents go together as a free brochure you can reproduce to provide to
families and the public.
Please remember that the DVD we use as a cornerstone of the education is called “Safe Sleep for Your Baby: Right from the Start” and can be purchased on this website. If you have any questions, please feel free to CONTACT US. Best of luck in your efforts to promote infant sleep safety!
Respectfully,
Judith A. Bannon, Founder
Cribs for Kids® National Infant Safe Sleep Initiative
Michael H. Goodstein, MD, FAAP
Attending Neonatologist
Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (Penn State U.)
Director, York County Cribs for Kids Program York Hospital Office of Newborn Medicine
