Factors influencing healthcare providers’ behaviors in the care of infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS): An integrative review

Due to a significant increase in the number of infants diagnosed with neonatal abstinence syndrome and the lengthy hospitalization often required for their pharmacologic treatment, a comprehensive understanding of the factors that influence healthcare providers' behaviors in implementing nonpharmacological interventions for infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome is needed. The Whittemore and Knafl methodology guided an integrative review of literature on the current knowledge of the individual and contextual factors that influence healthcare providers’ behaviors in implementing nonpharmacological interventions that decrease the length of stay for infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome through the lens of the Theoretical Domains Framework. Results of this review may provide knowledge to inform future interventions and assist in the development and implementation of best practice standards, clinical practice guidelines, and protocols to improve the care of this vulnerable and rapidly-growing patient population: the neonatal abstinence syndrome maternal-infant dyad.