Nursing Child Assessment Satellite Training I (NCAST I): Keys to Caregiving for Infants and Families

The NCAST 1: Keys to Caregiving for Infants and Families program provides nurses and healthcare professionals with evidence-based information about infant cues and behavior that can be applied to infant assessment, infant care, and parent teaching. Specific areas of infant behavior to be addressed include: Sleep/Wake Organization, State Regulation, Infant Behavior (derived from the Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale), Infant Cues and Infant-caregiver interactions. A child health assessment model is also presented that considers infant behaviors, parent-infant interactions and the environment as the basis for identifying an infant’s risk for later developmental issues.

Course Objectives.
1) Discuss the importance of assessing parent-infant interactions and environmental conditions in predicting which infants are at risk for developmental issues.
2) Identify the six infant states and discuss their implications for parents and other caregivers.
3) Describe the value of integrating infant behaviors derived from the Brazelton Newborn Exam in routine infant care and parent teaching.
4) Discuss the meaning of infant cues and describe their importance as a means of communication between caregiver and infant.
5) Give examples of activities infants and their caregivers use to modulate infant states and discuss the importance of this information in parent teaching.
6) Define the responsibilities of the parent and the infant in the Barnard model and discuss their implications for infant care and parent teaching.

This course is only open to employees of Lurie Children’s