The purpose of this study was to describe NICU nurses consciousness of three methods of expressing breast milk: hand expression. hand-operational breast pump and automatic electric breast pump.
A questionnaires was distributed 800 NICU nurses in December 2002 and February 2003, and 255 available replies (31.9%) were received. Of those replies 190 were analyzed, excluding students, and NICU nurses who have no teaching experience for mothers of high risk neonates about expression of breast milk.
Results were as follows: 1) The reason for using hand expression was to be able to control pressure, but on the contrary the reason for denying automatic electric breast pump was not to be able to control pressure. But, from the literature the latter is reported to be able to control pressure like infants sucking; 2) 20 % of nurses answered that automatic electric breast pump was not used even if it would completely fill the requirements, because of "positive consciousness of using hands" and "negative consciousness of mechanics"; 3) 19 % of nurses answered that NICUs have a negative atmosphere for automatic electric breast pump because of misunderstanding.
Through the study results, it was clear that it is necessary for nurses to understand well the automatic electric breast pump to make good use of it for mothers of high risk neonates.