One issue on my unit has been the improper performance of heel sticks on infants. To address this, I plan to provide educational resources to demonstrate and reinforce proper heel stick techniques. My primary audience will be the day shift nurses, as I work during that shift and can engage with them directly. The short-term goal of this project is to increase awareness and understanding of the issue among day shift staff, ensuring they know how to perform heel sticks correctly. The long-term goal is to reduce the number of inappropriate heel sticks once all nurses have completed the educational training.

Members of the interdisciplinary team that have influenced my achievement towards my project goal, short term, and long term outcome are the nurse educator, day shift nurses, and pediatric nurse practitioners. They have been helpful because I have been able to get feedback about the project and how to improve the amount of inappropriate heel sticks we've previously seen. My project's long-term outcome will help improve holistic care for the infant by minimizing unnecessary heel sticks reduces pain, skin damage, and potential complications. Another holistic approach is being gentle, appropriate care helps reduce stress and trauma for both infants and parents, promoting bonding and emotional security. Skin to skin contact between the infant and their parent is a way that reduce stress and promote bonding. According to Ullsten et al. (2024), "skin to skin contact has been demonstrated to significantly reduce pain intensity scores as measured using validated composite biobehavioral pain indicators with an effect that sustains over repeated episodes of pain exposure" (p. 2).

A barrier that I have encountered is making sure that all the day shift nurses are receiving the educational handouts and are practicing the correct method for the heel sticks. Although the handouts are being left at the nurses station and in the nursery, it's hard to make sure that they are receiving the information. An evidence base strategy that can help improve this barrier is continued education. I can do this by performing formative assessments to make sure the information has been seen by the nurses and that they know the correct way to perform the heel sticks on infants.

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