Special Care Nursey and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit!!!

Good Morning Bloggers

Today I spent the day in Special Care and Neonatal Intensive care unit. Lets start with the Philosophy of this unit....The Baby (neonate) is an individual, with individual needs, and is also a member of a family and a society....Let me ask a question.....Do you feel sometimes that there are certain members of staff that actually forget why they chose the profession they are in and that we are dealing with patients that could be our Mother, Sister ect???we need a philosophy statement to remind us sometimes why we are doing our job!!!!I think....

The aim of Neonatal nursing is to provide for, and meet the needs of the baby, and to encourage, and teach the parents, until such a time as they can provide for and meet the needs of their baby (i.e take baby home ).

On admission the baby's oxygenation and circulation is assessed, Fact!!!Babies who are nursed in oxygen have regular arterial blood gases taken to assess the accuracy of the monitors and to assess baby's progress.

All babies who are on the unit are given their mothers expressed milk (EBM) All mothers are encouraged to express their milk.Fact!!!Most women in J.A breastfeed, they all are aware of the nutritional value and the benefits to baby.....I'm presuming that it's considered the only option if it is well established and the mother is able to breastfeed or express. Cheap too....lol.

All babies that are born less than 32-34 weeks gestation are given a nasogastric tube which is changed every 5 days until baby establishes breast or cup feeding. Babies greater than 32 weeks gestation may have breast or cup feeds. All babies less than 34 weeks gestation are given vitamin supplements from day 14 onwards.

All babies have their blood glucose checked for Hypoglycemia and if it reports to be less than 2mmol/1, it is repoted to the doctor. All babies have vital signs checked daily in accompaniment with skin care and hygiene. All babies are bathed once per day depending on their condition...and they are bathed in olive oil and water.Babies are all weighed every other day to reassess feeds and calculations.

The other very noticeble fact...was that this hospital used Manual CPAP....(A bottle with water and tubing attached with measurements.......it was fascinating to observe.)

Their is efficient hand washing through out the staff. The staff are aware that there is a need for care and belonging of each child, so they facilitate this by making sure an early photograph of the baby is taken and given to parents, Early visits by parents are encouraged, all parents are encouraged to touch, hold and participate in the care of their baby no matter how small the baby is. It is the nurses duty to know the family by name and involve the family with the decisions and planning of baby's care. The only babies that have minimal touch...are the ventilated babies.

All babies that are discharged from this unit are followed up at 6weeks, then 4, 8, 12, 18 and 24 months.

Question.....Have you ever worked along side a work colleague who you feel does not like you???Well I met that very said person today......(smiling inside as I share)....The ward was secured by locked doors, I pressed the buzzer and was buzzed in. I walked on the ward and was greeted by a nurse/midwife who told me to join in the handover. As I walked over to where the handing over was taking place, I noticed a nurse/midwife at the corner of my eye....so naturally....me being me...(for those who know me) I smiled......and smiled...and smiled....(hoping that my smile would crack the stern faced person who was staring straight at me)......and of coarse ...it did not...Gulp....this particular lady was not impressed with me at all....Now I feel I am a pretty good judge of character.......so I figured....give me long enough....and I will get at least a change of facial expression from this lady......(if only she new how hard I actually tried....lol)....to no avail of course. The rest of the staff were very accommodating with the exchange of smiles.

After hand over, I was greeted by my mentor for the day, who explained that she would delegate the task of orientating me around the ward to one of her nurses......And guess who the lovely nurse was.......Yes.....my lovely....sterned face friend.....who still had no expression when she was asked??? Now surely......this nurse would smile with me.....wrong again.....I was orientated round...(Very well...baring in mind) and do you think that this nurse smiled once???or even made eye contact with me...come to think of it.....but.....I knew my surroundings which was nice....Later when sharing this little bit of information with a mentor of mine....she explained that some people when working have a set agenda....and if you are not on that agenda...then you don't exist in that persons eyes.....that makes perfect sense......I might try that same tactic when I want certain individuals to vanish out of my world....Don't take offence guys...YOUR NOT ON MY AGENDA!!!!LOL

It was truly amazing to watch the staff at work.....even though the facilities they had were different to what we have and more dated apparatus were being used.....the knowledge of the staff was tremendous....and the quality of care was second to none....and the observations that were carried out were finely tuned as they do not have the machines that we rely on.......Question.......Do we rely to much on machines to do are jobs......I'm thinking yes....what do you think???

Blog later

Miss P xxx