Purpose/Background: Research has shown that congenital heart disease can affect how a child develops cognitively, socially, and emotionally. Literature on starting a neuroprotective care program outside the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (PCICU) is limited.  Continuing a program is crucial as the patient transitions from the PCICU to Cardiac Acute Care Unit (CACU). Our goal on the CACU is to ensure that we are delivering developmentally appropriate neuroprotective care to our medical and surgical hospitalized patients as they move through the hospital continuum. 
 
Project Design : A work group was created including the CACU educator, patient teaching coordinators, pediatric psychologist, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, child life therapists, and lactation consultant to plan a neuroprotective course for nursing staff. The workgroup created didactic for a 7-hour class on neuroprotective care integrating Coughlin’s core measure of developmental care. 
 
Results/Discussion: The workgroup became the Neuroprotective team on the CACU consisting of the CACU educator, patient teaching coordinators, pediatric psychologist, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, child life therapy, and lactation consultant. This team presented the class to 18 CACU nurses. The goal of the class was to educate nurses in a way that would not only change their daily practice, but also empower them to educate the rest of the staff. The class included background to neuroprotective care, brain development, long term outcomes, programs for parents, pain and stress, pain and sedation, normal developmental milestones, breastfeeding, protected sleep, and how to create a healing environment. Staff participated in hands-on sessions for infant positioning, bathing, kangaroo care, and four-handed care. After attending the class, these 18 nurses worked with the neuroprotective care team to create educational posters for the other staff on the CACU and then reinforced that education with bedside follow up.

Conclusion: The class participants utilized the information presented to share their new knowledge with the other nurses and patient care techs on the floor. The CACU continues to educate staff on neurodevelopmental care by providing the neuroprotective care class during onboarding of new staff, updating the neuroprotective care bulletin board, and adding tips of the month to monthly education/staff meetings. By working with the interdisciplinary team on the CACU, our staff has integrated developmentally appropriate care to all facets of patient care on the CACU.