EVALUATION OF THE INFANTS IN TERMS OF PREPARATION FOR THE DISCHARGE AND FOLLOWING Burcu AYKANAT 1, Güler CİMETE 2 1 Research Assistant, Çankırı University,Faculty of Health Science, Nursing Division, Department of Pediatric Nursing ÇANKIRI-TURKEY 2 Professor, Maltepe University, School of Nursing, Department of Pediatric Nursing ISTANBUL-TURKEY Table 3. Rehospitalization of Preterm Infants According to the Discharge Risks (N:238) Table 4. Comparison of the Preterm Infants’ Discharge Risk Level and The Problems of Mothers About Baby Care After Discharge (N:238) A significant percantage of the mothers (%70.2) reported having problems with baby care following infant discharge. Recognizing signs of infant illness was the most common problem (%93.4) mothers have after discharge. Conclusion: Discharge services are not effective and sufficient Discussion Nearly half of the infants are discharged with high and intermediate level risk and so there is a high rate of rehospitalizations of those İnfants and high rate of mothers having problems of baby care after the discharge, indicates that the discharge services are not effective and sufficient for the potential dicharges in our country. This study was carried out with the aims of assessing the validity and reliability of Neonatal Discharge Assessment Tool (NDAT); of assessing the preterm infant and its parents in terms of discharge risks and of testing the risks after the discharge by following the health conditions of infants. This study was carried out with the aims of assessing the validity and reliability of Neonatal Discharge Assessment Tool (NDAT); of assessing the preterm infant and its parents in terms of discharge risks and of testing the risks after the discharge by following the health conditions of infants. PURPOSEMETHOD Sub- dimensions Cronbach Alfa(α) Medical.71 Competencies.68 Risk Factors.89 Resources.83 Parenting.93 NDAT Total.94 Table 1. The Internal Consistency of the Turkish Version of NDAT and Subdimensions (N=238) RESULTS NDAT Content Validity Index=.98 Construct Validty is proved with Known- Groups Approach Discharge Risk n% Low (0-59 score) Intermediate ( score) High ( score) Table 2. Discharge Risks of Preterm Infants According to the NDAT Scores (N=238 ) Of the 238 preterm infants, 95 (%39.9) were readmitted within the first two months after discharge because of their health problems. The most common causes of rehospitalization were respiratory disorders (%51.5) such as pneumonia, apnea, acute bronchiolitis Re- Hospi- taliza- tion Low Risk (n: 132) n % Interme diate Risk (n:90) n % High Risk (n: 16) n % Yes No TestΧ 2: p=.000 Having The Problems about Baby Care Low Risk (n: 132) n % Intermed ate Risk (n:90) n % High Risk (n: 16) n % Yes No Test Χ 2: p=.000 Preterm Infants week 121 % week 101 % week 16 %6.8 The sample group included 238 preterm infants and their parents. Data was collected by; Neonatal Discharge Assessment Tool, Infant and Parent Information Form, Post-discharge Infant Following Form. Data were collected last three days before discharge and two months later from discharge by using observation and interview methods. ANOVA, Mann-Whitney U-test, Χ 2 and Spearman correlation analysis were used for data evaluation