Theme: Complex health care and chronic disease management.

In 2003, a group of professionals from Oporto went to Boston in the United States in order to get to know the NIDCAP program and brought it to Portugal, because they believed that individualized care is the adequate response to the developmental needs of preterm babies and their families, a concern of the unit since its inception.

The healthcare professionals were certified in the program, which began at the unit on 11 June 2011. Since then a better support system was provided to both families and professionals through systematic observations that provide guidelines for care, based on interpretation of the signs that preterm babies show.

On 1 April 2015 the São João NIDCAP Training Center opened, the only Portuguese-speaking center in the Federation, providing training to healthcare professionals working in NICUs.

We intend to present this journey and the benefits it brought to the Hospital São João’s NICU.