Ensuring Safe Sleep in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit: A Systematic Review of Informed Development of Clinical Guidelines for Implementation in Practice

Abstract

Introduction: Although general safe sleep guidelines have been established, their utility and implementation have yet to be examined systematically for inpatient populations for application to infants in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) setting. This study aimed to complete a systematic review of inpatient safe sleep practices studies to develop then safe sleep clinical guidelines for implementation in the care of medically complex infants in the PICU.

Method: This review was registered with PROSPERO and adheres to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses systematic review guidelines.

Results: Nineteen articles met the inclusion criteria. A safe sleep guideline algorithm for medically complex infants in the PICU was created for implementation.

Discussion: Consistent and comprehensive safe sleep education and modeling by health care professionals in the inpatient setting is an effective technique to reduce the risk of harm and promote safe sleep behaviors in the home setting.

Keywords: PICU; SIDS; Safe sleep; implementation science; systematic review.