Kristen Phonvilai, BSN, RN IV, RNC-NIC
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
Kristen was nominated for her leadership in a quality improvement project.
Thermoregulation is a keystone of neonatal care. Regardless of weight or gestational age, hypothermia at birth is a significant risk factor for mortality. Kristen has been involved in a quality improvement to decrease the incidence of hypothermia of premature infants on admission to the NICU. During this project, Kristen identified contributing factors occurring during resuscitation, stabilization, transportation, and NICU admission processes and developed interventions and staff education.
Prior to beginning the project, 47.6% of premature infants were hypothermic on admission to the NICU. Through Kristen’s work on the project, this decreased to 16.4%. Kristen’s work on this quality improvement project is having a direct impact on the health and wellbeing of premature infants admitted to the UAMS NICU.