Nurse

Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) is the medical management of infants born too early or have difficulty within the first 30 days of life. In this unit the infants are care for by and managed by neonatologist who are RN's who uptained special training just for these infants. In the unit on hand is a nurse practitioner, inconjunction with a local pediatrician. The neonatologist will be the ones primarily responsible for monitoring the babies closely, taking vital signs and measurements, obtaining blood specimens as needed, and provide teaching to the parents so they will be prepared for when their baby is ready to go home. In the NICU many babies require some special assistance with breathing or need supplemental oxygen. When giving oxygen the air is warm and humidified so retina damage does not occur, pure oxygen could possibly ruin the retina of the eyes. So the infants are closely monitored for all aspects of respiratory care. The infants mainly need the pressure not so much the oxygen it self, so oxygen is given with concentraction. The max an infant can receive is 3L of oxygen any need for more the infant is placed on a CPAP machine. ACPAP is a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, which is a treatment that uses mild air pressure to keep the airways open. CPAP is used to treat preterm infants whose lungs have not fully developed. Most infants in NICU are placed on tube feeding which are given every 2hrs if respirations are over 70. If infants respirations are less than 70 than infant is able to be fed by mouth. Mothers are incouraged to breast feed or continue to pump so baby can be fed through tube with breast milk. Breast feeding is the best way for a mother to support her sick child. Breast milk is the easiest for infants to digest, and provides some passive immunity to infection. When infants are feeding they are placed in an upright position and pacifier placed in mouth to aide in digestion. Before feeding the residual is checked from babies belly, tube