Welch Emotional Connection Screen (WECS) in the NICU

Columbia University

Status: Completed

Conditions: Obstetric Labor, Premature; Premature Birth

Treatments: Other: NICU WECS Training; Behavioral: Welch Emotional Connection Screen for Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04922242

AAAT5743

Details and patient eligibility

About

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.

Full description

The Welch Emotional Connection Screen (WECS) is an investigational developmental screening tool that was developed to rate the quality of the emotional connection that formed between mother and child. When administered at 4 months of age, the scale has predictive value in determining which children will show higher risk for developmental problems at 18 months of age. The scale is administered in 2-3 minutes by observing a brief interaction between mother and child and requires the rater to critically assess 4 domains of emotional connection.

The present study will introduce an educational module for teaching NICU clinicians to critically observe mother-child interactions through use of a standardized didactic experience and structured use of the brief clinical screening tool, the WECS, and the theories around nurturing and emotional connection. In one module training session, participants will view a pre-recorded webinar on the WECS developed by the Nurture Science Program at Columbia University. During the second part of the training, participants will view and rate a set of pre-recorded parent-child interactions using the WECS. Clinicians will complete a survey and participate in a focus group discussion about their experiences with the training process and utility of the WECS in clinical practice. Determining if the WECS can be used easily and reliably by NICU clinicians will help to create new strategies that better meet the needs of all professionals involved in NICU care, as well as the families they serve.

Enrollment: 193 patients

Sex: All

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Population 1: Consenting Interdisciplinary Professional Clinical Staff who are employed to work in the NICU as a:

  • Nurse
  • Therapist
  • Social worker
  • Physician

• Population 2: Consenting parents and infants whose parents give consent by guardianship and whose physicians approve inclusion in the study.

Exclusion criteria

• Both populations: Refusal to consent

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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193 participants in 2 patient groups

Population 1: NICU Study Staff

Experimental group

Description:

Interdisciplinary Professional Clinical Staff who are employed to work as a nurse, therapist, social worker or physician in the NICU.

Treatment:

Other: NICU WECS Training

Population 2: Mother-infant dyads in NICU

Experimental group

Description:

Parent and infant dyads admitted to a NICU for over 72 hours.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Welch Emotional Connection Screen for Neonatal Intensive Care Unit