An exploratory quantitative study to ascertain neonatal nurse confidence in kangaroo care provision in an Irish neonatal hospital setting

Aim The aim of this study is to explore and identify how confidence may or may not be affecting KC provision in Irish neonatal settings.

Methods This study is an exploratory quantitative design. Quantitative data was collected using the “Kangaroo Care Skills Confidence Tool” with a targeted convenience sample of 70 nurses, using a homogenous, non-probability sampling method. Data was analysed using STATA software for descriptive statistics and linear regression.

Results Confidence in kangaroo care provision was generally high, with 81.6% (n = 31) of nurses feeling confident in their skills to recognise and assess the infant's physiological and behavioural responses to it. Diversely though, 50% (n = 19) of nurses felt apprehensive when offering it to “some” of the infants in their care. In the linear regression the p-value of age is 0.035, which means there is a statistically significant effect of age on KC confidence. The coefficient of age is negative (−0.0966), which indicates a negative relationship. This means that with the increasing age of the participants, the mean of the answers decreased. Older participants did statistically significantly disagree more with their confidence in KC than younger participants.

Conclusion Institutional barriers and the level of academic qualification of the nurse affected confidence in KC provision. Education should improve apprehension scores.