According to the National Association of Neonatal Nurses (NANN), there are approximately 40,000 low-birth-weight infants born each year in the United States. Not all of these babies make it past the first 4 weeks of life outside the womb. But thanks to advances in medicine and training, and to the hard work of highly skilled NICU nurses and other healthcare professionals, survival rates are continuing to improve. 
 

What is a Neonatal Nurse?

A neonatal nurse is a registered nurse. He/she may have an associate, baccalaureate, master's or doctoral degree, and/or a diploma from a hospital-based school of nursing. Neonatal nurses may also be certified in their area of specialty.

Neonatal nurses provide different levels of care to babies ranging from healthy newborns and sick or premature babies to babies who have serious birth defects, severe illnesses or other critical, life-threatening problems. 

Neonatal nursing generally involves care for newly-born infants in crisis, but may additionally encompass neonates who suffer from long-term problems related to being born early, or from some severe illness encountered soon after birth. Some neonatal nurses may even care for babies up to about 2 years of age. However, most care for infants from birth until they are well enough to be discharged from the hospital.

Basic Skills

Each healthcare institution may establish its own practice standards for neonatal nurses, but most expect the nurse to be always on the alert and capable of rapidly responding to any incident or status change that may cause harm to the neonate, such as temperature fluctuations, skin discoloration, or excess/inadequate oxygen supply. Additional care responsibilities may include:

1. management of intravenous lines
2. medication administration
3. newborn CPR
4. neonatal resuscitation
5. using feeding tubes, incubators, ventilators, and transfusion equipment

Some babies may have severe respiratory problems. Others may need a tracheostomy, or require a tube to be inserted through the chest wall to keep their lungs expanded. The neonatal nurse must be competent to manage all of these situations, at a minimum.

CAE Luna: Baby simulator for tracheostomy care

Aptitudes and Attributes of the Neonatal Care Nurse

The neonatal nurse must be able to educate and support the infant’s parents, who may be stressed or frightened. Though the primary patients for Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) nurses are the sick and/or premature newborn babies who need to be cared for and monitored (sometimes for weeks or months), NICU nurses also need to possess empathetic critical thinking and communication skills, along with compassion, stability, and patience in order to tend to the needs of worried new mothers and new fathers.

Nurses who care for neonates must remain ever alert and be detail-oriented so that they can consistently provide the best of care to infant patients. And, with multiple babies under their care, these nurses must be able to prioritize and organize their workload so that adequate care is administered correctly to each child.

Neonatal nurses need to possess maturity and be emotionally stable at all times. They must demonstrate the ability to cope with the stress while staying strong, upbeat and as objectively detached as possible. But they also need to know that it is alright to be human and to show genuine care and concern. Emotional balance provides strength and comfort to families while allowing the nursing staff to assert humanity as they focus on the challenges of their profession.

Get to Know CAE Luna: The Only Baby Simulator You May Ever Need

Attain comprehensive neonatal assessment training, and so much more, with CAE Luna from CAE Healthcare.
CAE Luna offers several distinctive features for quality training in neonatal care, including laryngospasm management capability, and spontaneous breathing options with variable respiratory rate and breathing patterns.

Built on a configurable and expandable platform (Base, Live, Advanced) with unique and comprehensive configuration options that allow for progressive skills development from essential newborn nursing protocols, S.T.A.B.L.E., and Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) skills, to Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) training requirements, CAE Luna offers the best preparation for safe and effective care of a neonate.