| Nutritional care is of vital importance for premature infants, and minimize the loss of body storages at whom is
unable to meet his caloric requirement. With regard to the necessity of conformity and proximity of the care
services to the standards as much as possible, the present study is aimed to investigate the nurses' performance
in PN-related care at NICUs (Neonatal Intensive Care Units) of the hospitals of Tabriz University of Medical
Sciences. The present descriptive study was conducted on 70 nurses working at NICUs of the hospitals affiliated
to Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. Data collection was performed using a three-part checklist containing
the information on the nurses' performance status in terms of the PN procedure standards before, during, and
after providing the care services (pre, peri, and post-PN procedure). Furthermore, in order for data analysis,
SPSS-21 software and descriptive statistics were used. The result showed that the maximum and minimum
performance scores were related to the pre-PN and peri-PN care stages, respectively. In terms of the PN
standards observance level, findings indicated that performance of the nurses was, in most of the cases, at a
moderate level at all three pre, peri, and post-PN stages. Nurses have direct impacts on patient care as well as its
consequent outcomes. Since neglecting the importance of the PN-related care at NICU,s may lead to irreparable
damages to the infants due to their high vulnerability, it is essential to hold training session for the medical
treatment staff in order to promote the standard practical methods |