Four from Catawba Valley Health System (CVHS) recently completed their
Neonatal Touch and Massage Certification (NTMC), which places them among
only 1,300 professionals nationally with this distinction.
We congratulate NICU nurses Meredith McSwain, BSN, RNC, and Katherine Evans,
BSN, RNC, as well as occupational therapists Tabitha Yates MS, ORT/L,
NTMTC, and Heather Carswell MS, ORT/L, NTMTC, for their hard work to achieve
exclusively neonatal, one-of-a-kind-certification for neonatal healthcare
providers.
It includes current literature through 15 hours of online education and
two days of hands-on training. NTMC is clinically applicable for daily
caregiving in the NICU and enhances skill development in handling, positioning,
skin-to-skin, infant massage, swaddled bathing and advanced practice techniques
such as myofascial trigger point releases. NTMC maximizes the long-term
development outcomes of the infants in the NICU and ensures parent involvement
and bonding.
Kara Ann Waitzman, founder of the Neonatal Touch and Massage Certification,
said, “We want to acknowledge this group as experts in this area
ofneonatal care. They have earned their professional credentials of NTMNC
and have become part of an exclusive group of neonatal caregivers.”