If you are looking for a rewarding career in nursing, you may want to consider neonatal nursing. This nursing specialty has many benefits, but the biggest benefit of all is the patients. You will have the privilege of taking care of the cutest patients in the entire field of nursing. Nothing is more special than a tiny baby who is depending on you for a chance to grow and become a happy and healthy child. So if neonatal nursing sounds interesting to you, keep reading to discover what this nursing specialty is all about.
Neonatal Nursing Information Revealed
The term neonatal refers to the first twenty eight days of life. As a neonatal nurse, you will be specially trained to care for babies in this age group. Sometimes the babies will be extremely premature and other times they will be full term, but too sick to go home right away.
There are three levels of neonatal nurseries. A level one nursery is a healthy newborn nursery. These nurseries are almost non-existent these days because mothers and newborns have a very short hospital stay. The average length of hospital stay after a normal delivery is a minimum of forty-eight hours.
During much of this stay, the baby will spend a lot of time in the mother’s room to encourage bonding.
The level two nursery is a special care nursery that is designed to care for premature infants or neonatal infants who are suffering from an illness. The level two nurseries will be able to supply supplemental oxygen and intravenous therapy such as fluids and antibiotics. It will also be able to supply specialized feedings that may be delivered through a tube that is inserted into the nose and down into the stomach. Some neonates will require a surgically implanted feeding tube that goes directly into the stomach. These feedings will give the baby the nutrition it needs to be able to mature enough to go home.
A level three neonatal nursery is a neonatal intensive care unit or NICU for short. This type of nursery provides the highest level of care possible for neonates. The babies in the NICU may require ventilator support, incubators or surgery for genetic defects. Nurses who work in the NICU are specially trained to work with high tech equipment that is critical to keeping the babies alive.
So how do you become a neonatal nurse? Universities with neonatal nursing classes can be found, but first and foremost, you must be a registered nurse. From there, your neonatal nursing education will start you off as a staff nurse and aid in the care of critically ill newborns. After you have gained some experience working with the critically ill neonates, you can take the national certification exam to obtain your neonatal nursing certification. The national credentialing program that provides certification requires that you have twenty four months experience working with critically ill neonates before you can sit for the exam.
Once you are certified, you may choose to work as a member of a neonatal transport team. You will be part of a team that transports very sick newborns from one facility to another where they will be able to receive the level of care they need. You may also want to become a stabilization nurse who attends all high risk deliveries.
What type of qualities must you have to be a neonatal nurse? It goes without saying that the best quality you could have is a love for babies. You must also be able to stay calm when faced with an emergency situation. You will have a lot of these because babies, especially neonates, can take a turn for the worse in a matter of minutes. You will also be dealing with very frightened parents, so patience and good communication skills are a must. Not all babies will survive, so it is critical that you be able to handle the death of a baby. You will be the one the parents will look to for support and consolation.
Neonatal nursing and career sub-specialities relating to neonates such as transport and stabilization nurses are a great nursing specialty to get into if you love babies. The job description for neonatal nursing involves intense and critical situations. But when you are rewarded with a little smile or feel tiny fingers curling around yours, you will know that you have the best job in the world.
