Bridging the Gap:  Developmental Considerations for the Infant with Congenital Heart Defects

(Submitting credits through the organizations does not guarantee approved credits or the full credits. All participants will receive a certificate of completion which you may be able to use towards your professional license).

Cancellation Policy:  Cancellation Fee will apply.

Holly Schifsky, OTR/L, CNT, NTMTC, CBIS is an Occupational Therapist who has worked in pediatrics for the past 27 years with the past 16 years in a level IV NICU.  She is a Certified Neonatal Therapist, Certified Neonatal Touch and Massage Therapist, Certified Brain Injury therapist, an active member of National Association of Neonatal Therapists, and has completed 6-month mentorship in in infant/child NDT.  She has worked within the NICU and NICU follow-up clinic to maximize patient and family outcomes for the most complex premature and medically fragile term infants.  Holly received her Bachelor of Science degree in Occupational therapy from the University of North Dakota in 1997.  She has dedicated her career to clinical care and advancing developmental care practice patterns for all multidisciplinary team members.  She has presented at many regional and national conferences including National Association of Neonatal Therapists, American Physical Therapy Combined Sections Meeting, Audrey Harris Vision NICU conference, and the University of Minnesota NICU conference.  She provides Developmental Care, Feeding Intervention, and NICU education throughout the country.  She is a faculty member for Neonatal Touch and Massage; Education Resources Inc; and Manual Edema Mobilization.  She is the recipient of the NANT Clinical Excellence award in 2018.

Financial Disclosures: Holly Schifsky receives a fee for speaking and instructing on this topic. 
Non-Financial Disclosures: Holly Schifsky has no relevant nonfinancial relationships to disclose.

This introductory-intermediate course will focus on the cardiopulmonary implications for premature or medically fragile infants. The course will focus on congenital cardiac conditions, medical/surgical management, and rehabilitation interventions to maximize the infants developmental and feeding skills.  Discussion regarding primary heart repair and staged palliative surgical interventions with treatment considerations for each care plan.  Clinical assessment and treatment skills will be presented that will assess the infant’s physiological stability, evolving motor control, sensory stability, and transition to oral motor skills that support feeding.  This course will advance the critical reasoning skills of the pediatric therapist to support the infant’s ability to obtain foundational motor and sensory skills. These skills include the ability of the infant to cough, produce audible phonation, oral motor skills, swallow skills, trunk facilitation, gestational age-appropriate positioning/handling to support the emergence of gross motor skills for postural stability. We will discuss current literature as relevant to this topic and apply a systems theory approach for case study treatment planning.

Outline

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