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Welch Emotional Connection Screen (WECS) in the NICU

NCT04922242 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 193

Last updated 2024-11-21

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

The purpose of this study is to assess knowledge about emotional connection, attitude about relational health, and efficacy of Welch Emotional Connection Screen (WECS) training in the NICU. The investigators seek to discern if through this didactic training, frontline NICU clinicians can be taught to reliably use the WECS to rate parent-child relational health. Additionally, the investigators seek to learn if there is construct and theoretical validity of the hospitalized infant preterm WECS by correlating WECS scores to physiological, behavioral and mental health markers for parent and infant.

Conditions

  • Premature Birth
  • Obstetric Labor, Premature

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Welch Emotional Connection Screen for Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

The Welch Emotional Connection Screen (WECS) is an investigational developmental screening tool, developed to rate the quality of the emotional connection that formed between mother and child. The screen is administered in 2-3 minutes by observing a mother and child interact, and requires the rater to critically assess 4 sub-domains of emotional connection. The NICU WECS is a clinical tool adapted for use with neonates in the NICU. Reliability of NICU staff WECS scoring will be calculated via intra-class correlations with key scores. The WECS is scored on intervals of 0.5, with a minimum of 1 (rarely--low level of connection) and maximum of 3 (mostly--high connection). Scores are used to determine the level of need for intervention.

OTHER

NICU WECS Training

WECS Training is an educational module consisting of an introduction of the concepts of emotional connection and autonomic co-regulation as studied by The Nurture Science Program, as well as an illustration of how these experiential constructs differ from traditional care plans that focus on educating parents to encourage "bonding" as opposed to autonomic emotional connection within the NICU. An introduction to the domains of the WECS screen as well as illustrations of these domains through video will augment the training designed for NICU staff.

Sponsors & Collaborators

Principal Investigators

  • Martha G. Welch, MD · Professor of Psychiatry

Study Design

Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
OTHER
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2021-04-17
Primary Completion
2023-02-13
Completion
2023-02-13

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Entities

Companies

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT04922242 on ClinicalTrials.gov