Activities

 

The DCEIP team is involved in various activities in the NICU, the Neonatology Continuity Clinic and in the community. These include:

1. Medical and nursing staff education about developmental care practices and breastfeeding
2. Weekly developmental care round in NICU
3. Monthly parent education session and celebration of special events such as the world breastfeeding week, Kangaroo care awareness day, world NIDCAP day, world prematurity day and Read a Thon activity organized by The little Readers foundation- Australia
4. Follow up of sick and small newborn in the Neonatal Continuity Clinic and parents'education and provision of supportive materials such as the “Toy and Play" for early stimulation and responsive caregiving (Resources - Ei ​SMART)
5. Yearly participation in the NIDCAP Day Poster
   
6. Yearly participation as presenter or moderator a the NIDCAP trainers meeting https://nidcap.org/10-pearls-of-nidcap-wisdom/
   https://nidcap.org/learning-center/
   
   

Quality Improvement Projects​:​

Research activities:​

Publications:

• Rima Kaddoura PhD, Reine Zankar MD, Hani Tamim PhD, Martine El Bejjani PhD, Ziyad R. Mahfoud PhD,  Pascale Salameh,  Lama Charafeddine MD. Stress and quality of life post preterm birth during polycrises: prospective cohort study. AJOG Global Reports 2025/8/5 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666577825001182
• Youness N, Masri S, Abdel Nour G, Charafeddine L. Education Sessions Improve Knowledge and Attitudes of Parents in a Newborn Intensive Care Unit within a Low-Income Country. Developmental Observer (2025) Volume 18 Issue 1. DOI:10.14434/do.v18i1.40888 https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/do/article/download/40888/43137
• Kaddoura, R., Elbejjani, M., Tamim, H. et al. Building a maternal and child cohort amidst Lebanon's socioeconomic collapse: preliminary results and navigating research challenges. Popul Health Metrics 22, 5 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12963-024-00325-1https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12963-024-00325-1
• Saadieh Masri & Lama Charafeddine. Practice of Developmental Care During Multilayered Crisis Situation: Lessons Learned from Lebanon. Developmental Observer (2023) Volume 18 Issue 1. https://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/do/article/download/35770/38925
• Charafeddine, Lama; Obeid, Makram; Sharafeddin, Hussein (2023). OSRA Grant Cycle 5 Public Reports: Project Title: Comprehensive Parenting Program to Enhance Preterm Infants' Health and Development A Randomized Controlled Trial. Manara - Qatar Research Repository. Report. https://doi.org/10.57945/manara.24598992.v1 
• Sharafeddin, H., Charafeddine, L., Khalaf, J., Kanj, I. and Zaraket, F. Neonatal Video Database and Annotations for Vital Sign Extraction and Monitoring. DOI: 10.5220/0011637800003411 In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Pattern Recognition Applications and Methods (ICPRAM 2023), pages 767-774 ISBN: 978-989-758-626-2; ISSN: 2184-4313. https://www.scitepress.org/Papers/2023/116378/116378.pdf
• Badr, L. K., Charafeddine, L., & Sidani, S. (2022). Middle East (Lebanon). In Neonatal Nursing: A Global Perspective (pp. 111-117). Springer, Cham. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360127876_Middle_East_Lebanon
• Abi Farraj F, Masri S, Maalouf FI, Charafeddine L. Providing more effective kangaroo care during the COVID-19 pandemic: A quality improvement project in a Lebanese neonatal intensive care unit. IJQHC Communications. 2023 Jan 1;3(1):lyad002. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijcoms/lyad002
• Masri S, Charafeddine L, Tamim H, Naamani M, Jammal T, Akoury-Dirani L. Validation of the Arabic version of the parental stressor scale: neonatal intensive care unit (PSS: NICU). Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings. 2020 Sep;27(3):593-602. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10880-019-09643-1
• Charafeddine L, Masri S, Sharafeddin SF, Badr LK. Implementing NIDCAP training in a low-middle-income country: comparing nurses and physicians' attitudes. Early human development. 2020 Aug 1;147:105092. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2020.105092
• Charafeddine L, Masri S, Ibrahim P, Badin D, Cheayto S, Tamim H. Targeted educational program improves infant positioning practice in the NICU. International Journal for Quality in Health Care. 2018 Oct 1;30(8):642-8. doi: 10.1093/intqhc/mzy123.
• Masri S, Ibrahim P, Badin D, Khalil S, Charafeddine L. Structured Educational Intervention Leads to Better Infant Positioning in the NICU. Neonatal Network. 2018 Mar 1;37(2). https://doi.org/10.1891/0730-0832.37.2.70 
• Louma Basma Rustam, Saadieh Masri, Nathalie Atallah, Hani Tamim, Lama Charafeddine. Sensorimotor therapy and time to full oral feeding in <33weeks infants, Early Human Development, Volume 99, 2016, Pages 1-5, ISSN 0378-3782, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2016.04.007.Sensorimotor therapy and time to full oral feeding in 33 weeks infants
  ​

​Active research study: Global Scales for Early Development (GSED) 2.0 - Development of population norms for early childhood development under 36 months

• Participation in the prenatal education workshops organized by the AUBMC “My Path to Motherhood: What You Need to Know About Delivery, Postpartum Period, Breastfeeding, and Newborn Care" delivering breastfeeding topic and facilitating the hands-on practice for the expectant parents. https://aubmc.org.lb/clinical/patientedu/Pages/Patient-Education-Sessions.aspx​
  
• Development of The Neonatal Developmental Care Online Course targetting health care professionals. AUB - Events - Basic Neonatal Developmental Care Online Course 2025
• Development and support in the delivery of the "Supporting Breastfeeding Toolkit for Busy Physicians" workshops
  

​