Neonatal physiotherapists should be helping to provide developmental support and surveillance assessments to prematurely born children, during the first two years of their lives.
A comment from the APCP Neonatal Committee ...
We would like to thank the Guideline development group for their hard work and congratulate them on a really exciting document. This will be welcomed especially as it highlights the important role of the neonatal physiotherapist as part of the MDT in both the NICU/SCBU and out-reaching into the community, or in the community setting.
The role of the Neonatal Physiotherapists is supported by a detailed competence framework which will support staff in developing the appropriate skills required to work with this vulnerable population.
Physiotherapists working in the neonatal field commonly use a range of standardised assessments in the neonatal period and during follow up assessments. These assessments will help to further identify those infants displaying early signs associated with neurodevelopmental sequalae in order to facilitate stratification to the appropriate local follow up pathway e.g. enhanced support versus enhanced surveillance.
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank the group for outlining the minimum standards for follow up at age 2 corrected. Neonatal Physiotherapists are highly skilled practitioners and experts in the type of assessment required to look for deficit at 2 years in order to access appropriate therapy interventions at the earliest opportunity for these vulnerable infants.
Adare Brady, Hiliary Cruickshank, Suzanne Offer
APCP Neonatal Committee
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