Gravens By Design: Infant and Family-Centered Developmental Care Standards, Competencies and Best Practices—What is the Evidence?

Developmental and family-centered care has emerged over the past several decades and is now seen as essential for the clinical care of babies and families. As in any emerging clinical approach, evidence accumulates with varying degrees of scientific rigor. The Infant and Family-Centered Developmental Care (IF-CDC) interprofessional consensus panel has, over the past five years, been committed to providing the best evidence regarding developmental care practices for intensive care (1). As a result, the panel has reviewed, evaluated, and documented evidence leading to developing standards and competencies for babies and their families in intensive care.