Effects of Warm Hand Intervention on Calming in Preterm Infants with Respiratory Distress

Abstract

Preterm infants with respiratory distress are often separated from their mothers and admitted to neonatal intensive care units where they undergo numerous procedures that cause agitation and crying. This leads to physiological changes that can worsen respiratory distress and become life-threatening. Providing comfort care to promote infant calm can reduce these complications. The objective of this research was to compare the calming effects in newborns with respiratory distress between routine nursing care and routine nursing care with warm hand intervention, measured by heart rate, oxygen saturation levels, and sleep duration. This efficacy research employed a crossover design comparing experimental and control groups alternately. The sample consisted of 54 preterm infants with respiratory distress admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit, selected using purposive sampling. The control group received routine nursing care, while the experimental group received routine nursing care combined with warm hand intervention. Research instruments included a warm hand tool (IOC = 0.90), a data recording form for preterm infants with respiratory distress, and data recording forms for heart rate, oxygen saturation levels, and infant sleep duration with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of 0.90 and 0.90, respectively. Data analysis included percentages, means, standard deviations, and mixed model statistics to test differences between two groups with three repeated measurements. The results showed nursing care using warm hand intervention significantly reduced respiratory rate and crying duration in preterm infants with respiratory distress (p=0.004 and <0.001, respectively). Heart rate decreased and sleep duration increased compared to routine nursing care. Oxygen saturation levels increased without statistical significance (p=0.09). In conclusion, the warm hand intervention combined with routine nursing care effectively promotes comfort and physiological stability in newborns with respiratory distress, demonstrating its potential as a beneficial complementary nursing intervention in neonatal care.