Optimising neonatal bubble continuous positive airway pressure: A Somaliland quality initiative

African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Optimising neonatal bubble continuous positive airway pressure: A Somaliland quality initiative
 
Creator Mahmoud, Hawa D. Kent, Sarah C. Ibrahim, Fatima E. Mohamed, Najma Abdulahi, Fatima A. O'Neal, Meagan N. Kanajam, Priya Diego, Ellen K.
 
Subject neonatal-perinatal medicine; family medicine quality improvement; neonatal respiratory distress; bubble continuous positive airway pressure; low- and middle-income countries; neonatal mortality; neonatal intensive care unit
Description Background: Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy is the standard of care for neonatal respiratory distress and improves survival when implemented in low-resource settings. Clinical audits at the Borama Regional Hospital (BRH) Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) revealed multiple barriers to effective CPAP, including insufficient pressure, a lack of neonatal-sized nasal prongs, and patient interface challenges.Aim: Improve respiratory distress by increasing effective CPAP delivery for neonates 30 days of age from 52% to 90% in 6 months.Setting: Single-centre referral hospital in the Awdal region of Somaliland.Methods: Quality improvement (QI) initiative with outcomes displayed using statistical process control (SPC) charts.Results: Eleven residents, three medical interns and seven NICU nurses completed the educational training. Forty-five patients were initiated on the locally designed bubble CPAP (bCPAP) device with a 47% (122/261) CPAP safety checklist completion rate for the three daily nursing shifts. We achieved our study aim by increasing the adherence rate to the 7-item bCPAP device set up from a baseline of 52% to 91%. The rate of infants weaned or discontinued from bCPAP for improved respiratory severity score (RSS) increased from 0% to 18% but did not demonstrate process change. There was no increase in adverse event rates (air leak, nasal columella breakdown and nasal irritation).Conclusion: We demonstrated increased effective bCPAP delivery and decreased respiratory distress.Contribution: This study outlines low-cost, customisable QI strategies to address commonly encountered gaps for effective bCPAP delivery in low-resource settings without access to commercially available CPAP devices or speciality-trained providers.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor University of Minnesota Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Amoud University Department of Family Medicine
Date 2025-04-23
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — quality improvement
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/phcfm.v17i1.4742
 
Source African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine; Vol 17, No 1 (2025); 14 pages 2071-2936 2071-2928
 
Language eng
 
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https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/4742/8148 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/4742/8149 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/4742/8150 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/4742/8152 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/4742/8151
 
Coverage Africa August 2023-December 2023 —
Rights Copyright (c) 2025 Hawa D. Mahmoud, Sarah C. Kent, Fatima E. Ibrahim, Najma Mohamed, Fatima A. Abdulahi, Meagan N. O’Neal, Priya Kanajam, Ellen K. Diego https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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