Assessing staff knowledge of breast milk expression, breastfeeding, kangaroo care and positive touch for premature babies.

The Neonatal Unit Clinical Assessment Tool (NU CAT) is a new clinical assessment tool to help  hospitals increase breastfeeding rates for sick and premature babies by improving staff knowledge of practices that will support this.

It objectively assesses neonatal and midwifery staff knowledge, and measures the subjectively assessed confidence in their knowledge of:

• breast milk expression and breastfeeding
• kangaroo care
• positive touch for premature babies

The NU CAT has been developed as a research measure for the Small Wonders intensive interventions taking place at Guys and St Thomas’ Hospital, Kings College Hospital and Liverpool Women’s Hospital Trust and being evaluated by Coventry University. In response to expressions of interest from other neonatal units in using this tool, Best Beginnings and Health Behaviour Research Limited at Coventry University are offering other units the opportunity to use the NU CAT.

The NU CAT can be administered twice, the first administration as a baseline measure of knowledge. The second administration can be used to measure improvements as a result of interventions such as the Small Wonders DVDs.

As a charity, Best Beginnings needs to charge units for the use of the tool to cover the costs we have entailed, so that we can continue to deliver work such as Small Wonders.

Further details of how your hospital can benefit from this tool can be downloaded here: NU_CAT_Leaflet.pdf

Prices
One administration of NU CAT £2000
Two administrations of NU CAT £3,600