Importance Of Music Therapy In Neonatal Intensive Care

Premature infants are one of the most vulnerable groups of patients in a hospital. During the course of their hospital stay, they go through several stressful situations because of the treatments and procedures they have to handle. These stressors will affect the brain by altering its microstructure and functional connectivity (Blackwell, 2011). Also this will cause high blood pressure; sleep deprivation, hearing loss and sleep deprivation. One solution for the reduction of these stressors is the implementation of music therapy in the neonatal ICU's. Studies and researches have proved the positive effect of music therapy in the prognosis of premature infants. One such study is the one done by Aydin and Yildiz in 2012,as seen in the article "Effect of classical music on stress among preterm infants in a neonatal intensive care unit". The results showed that neonatal intensive care nurses can use classic music in NICUs as it masks the ambient noise, decreases stressful behaviors and bradycardia, has soothing and stimulating effects, and facilitates sleeping (Aydin D, Yildiz S). The Gate control theory explains the use of music therapy, which helps the patients to distract themselves from the stress producing procedures or situations. Music can be used to help relieve pain by stimulating the CNS to produce large fibers that will close the gate, not allowing the pain signals to transmit through the projection cells. An important aspect of a nursing research is the dissemination of the results before implementing on the unit. The steps involved in the dissemination project are selecting an audience, preparing an executive summary, grand rounds, distributing the copy of final proposal and attaining the feedback from the audience. Implementing the evidence-based research includes careful planning and overseeing the barriers. Each step for planning requires great effort and research studies so that the new project will increase the quality of patient care. Evaluating the process in timely manner will help to improve the outcome and resolve the problems during the course of new practice. Evaluation is the final step for the success of the implementation of an evidence based research process. It is the assessment of the process and outcomes of the program used for implementation (Fineout-Overholt & Johnston, 2007). In the proposal of implementing music therapy in the neonatal intensive care units, evaluation cans ne done in different steps. This includes selecting a evaluation method, developing evaluation questions and set up the proper time for evaluation.