Campaign: 11 months – 11 topics

With the campaign 11 Months – 11 Topics, EFCNI focuses its social media and online communication on one newborn health standard topic per month – starting from February until December. These monthly topics correspond to the eleven main subjects of the European Standards of Care for Newborn Health. Every month, the corresponding topic is explained by sharing related publications, news, interviews or guest articles.

The campaign 11 Months – 11 Topics took off in 2016 and aims at reaching out explicitly to health professionals and policy makers. Yet, also lay persons who are to benefit from the dissemination of the standards in the long run, namely the preterm babies and their parents, relatives, and friends are addressees of 11 Month 11 Topics. With this campaign, extensive information and best practice examples are shared to raise awareness of the needs of preterm patients and hence, for standards of care.

Here you find an overview of the topics which are featured monthly:

February: Data collection and documentation
March: Birth and transfer
April: Follow-up and continuing care
May: NICU design
June: Medical care and clinical practice
July: Ethical decision-making and palliative care
August: Nutrition
September: Education and training
October: Patient safety and hygiene practice
November: Infant- and family-centred developmental care
December: Care procedures

In 2021, the campaign enters its 6th year. This year, our focus is three-fold: renewal, implementation, and information.

The first standards are undergoing their scheduled review cycle and will be revised and updated to reflect the evolving state of the art. Moreover, new topics and standards will be added over the course of the year, illustrating the complexity of neonatal care in all its facets.

Apart from renewal, implementation will also be an important theme for us this year. Several translation projects have been launched, and we will slowly add translations of the standards into other languages to the website. In addition, we will again feature Lighthouse Projects to shine a light on best practice examples from all over Europe where the standards have already been successfully implemented. We hope that they will serve as a source of inspiration for those who want to bring about change in newborn care procedures.

Finally, we will continue to spread information about the standards and the project itself by featuring one “Standard in Brief” each month. The “Standard in Brief” provides a concise overview of one paticular standard and summarises its importance in an easily accessible visual. Our hope is that it encourages more people to get involved in the project and to learn about the issues at hand.

The following articles and features have been published so far: