ASSESS THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SENSORY NURSING INTERVENTIONS ON NEONATAL REFLEX AND REACTIVITY AMONG PRETERM INFANTS IN SELECTED SETTING, NAGERCOIL, K.K. DISTRICT

Preterm birth is defined as childbirth occurring at less than 37 completed weeks or 259 days of gestation. Preterm birth is a global problem and evidently more than 60 % of preterm births occur in Africa and South Asia. In India preterm births is rising and presently around 21 % of babies were born preterm. Neonatal intensive care unit stimuli may interfere with brain development in premature infants and contribute to developmental delays. Statement of the Problem: A Quasi Experimental Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Sensory Nursing Interventions on Neonatal Reflex and reactivity among Preterm Infants in Selected Setting, Nagercoil, K.K District. A Quantitative Research Approach- Quasi experimental research design was adopted. The study was conducted on 125 each on study and control group. The investigator provided Sensory Nursing Intervention care on study group preterm infants along with routine hospital and control group was obtaining routine hospital care. Both the group was assessed with Modified Neonatal Reflex and Reactivity Scale. The study concludes that the comparison of improvement of neonatal reflex and reactivity between the study and control group subjects revealed the mean differences between the groups on neonatal reflex and reactivity on pretest through posttest 3 are 7.0, 1.2, 2.2 and 3.6 respectively. The differences of means were statistically very highly significant (P<0.001).