Integrating Early Brain Science and Skills into Prelicensure Nursing Curriculum to Promote Parent-Child Interaction

core topic(s)

Early Relational Health

Population Characteristics

Infant/Newborn , Medical Providers , Medical Trainees

Exposures, Outcomes, Other

Brain/Neurocognitive , Child Development (general) , Clinic-Based Programs and Interventions , Implementation and Evaluation , Language and Literacy Development , Medical Training/Education , Parent-Child Relationships/Interactions , Talk with Me Baby

objectives

Integrate Talk With Me Baby into nursing school curriculum to address the problem that most nursing programs do not emphasize the importance of early language exposure and ways to empower families to talk with their babies.

exposure

Talk With Me Baby Curriculum.

outcomes evaluated

Parent-child interaction.

setting

Schools of nursing across Georgia.

methods

The Talk With Me Baby Curriculum for Nurses, which includes techniques to empower families to better engage conversationally with their babies, was integrated into the prelicensure nursing curriculum.

results

More than 1,300 nursing students have received knowledge and skills on early language exposure and ways nurses can promote parent-child interactions.

conclusions

Nurses have the opportunity to empower families to engage with their babies socially, emotionally, and linguistically as a means of promoting healthy brain development.

limitations

Integrating new content into existing prelicensure nursing curricula is often faced with challenges. Some of the notable challenges encountered include lack of time, content overload, and increased faculty workload.32 Initial challenges encountered by our team in the integration of TWMB into the existing prelicensure nursing curriculum mirrored these common challenges. Finding the right fit or placement of TWMB was a significant challenge. Time was also a considerable challenge as the didactic courses did not have adequate time to include the TWMB content and practice the skills.