We are going to be repainting and redecorating the L2/3 nurseries and the entrance halls to the nurseries (including L1), and I'm wondering how you guys have your areas decorated? Right now, our unit and halls are stark and dirty, dingy looking. There are no cute bunnies, no wallpaper, no paintings, nothing. I want to suggest some ideas, and have a couple, but thought ya'll might have some as well. What can we do to make our area more cheery and comfortable for the families and nurses? Any design ideas? Color suggestions? I would like to include some information as well, such as framed posters about post-natal care, breastfeeding, etc., as well as pamphlets (like a big rack to hang on the wall), maybe a bulletin board to show pics of the babies (with parental permission, of course...), or pictures of the graduates, or even pictures of the nurses doing nursing-related things. Any suggestions? I'd be really interested to hear how you have your nurseries decorated- we desperately need to do this. Thank you!!!

You know, I've never really paid alot of attention to the decoration scheme of our NICU. I know it's very family friendly. There is a big bulliten board that has pictures of graduates, and cards from families. A big beautiful saltwater fish tank sits right in front of you as you walk in.

I know as far as walls and carpet and flooring, everything is bright, but as for the actual design, I couldn't tell you.

This is very different from our well baby nursery. It, along with all of our rooms and hallways on post partum, were just redone. And let me tell you, who ever designed it should have won an award for making a nursery most resemble a funeral home! I swear, if there was just a big old cherry wood hutch on the wall, I would think I was in my grandma's dining room!

I'd go with the bright, primary colors. And I just love the idea of seeing all of the babies that have come and gone from the NICU! The last time I was floated there, they were putting up a pic a mom had sent. Her NICU baby had just graduated from high school, and she sent the grad pic.

Heather

Our unit is a neutral off white with an alphabet border. We put Pooh stickies on the walls in the rooms and we have glass sliding doors on the outside of each room and we put window clings on those.

No carpet...oh, ewwww...can you just imagine the stench after a week of spilling HAL, IL and baby barf on that BLEH!

We also have cloud ceilings :)

We don't have carpet in our care rooms, just in the hallways leading to them, around the main nurses station. We have 3 large care room that each hold about 20 babies, and a smaller room that used to be transition, but now houses the "feed & grow babies." They try to keep it empty unless they need to rearrange to make room for more high acuity babies.

Heather

How wonderful Kristi! How about the classic Peter Rabbit or classic Pooh characters on the wall-painted or a border, just love those and they won't go out of style, some comfy rocker cushions in coordinating colors, and maybe a wall of graduates to inspire the little ones

Thanks for the suggestions! If you have any more, let me know! Our hospital is very 'poor', most of the families we serve are indigent, but our nurse manager has basically said to ler her know what we want and she'll get it (within reason) because our wing is just sad, sad, sad. These all have to be things that the nurses can do, because we are having to pitch in and do it as a group- no budget for help! :>( I have limited artistic ability!! I can be very creative, but can't paint worth a lick. Another idea I had was to incorporate some sort of remembrance for babies we've had on the unit and lost- maybe a tiny footprint painted on the wall (to show that the baby left an impression on us?) or a butterfly (symbolizing a new phase of life?)...is that corny, or what? We have a looooooooong entrance hall with lots of wall space, and our wing of the hospital is like a 'T'... the base of the 'T' (the bottom) is the entry hall, and the top part of the 'T' is another long hall, with doors one way leading to Level III and the other way leading to Labor and delivery. LotsLOTS of empty, white wallspace (well, sort of yellowed, fingerprint-covered, dirt-smudged wallspace at the moment...). We have a conference room that needs to be redone and would be perfect for parent-staff discussions, has a tv for video watching, etc.) and that's not even talking about the actual 2/3 nurseries, which are simply pathetic. I always feel bad for parents coming in- it doesn't inspire much confidence! We need a general theme- not dedicated to one particular character. I was thinking about soft yellow walls, with some sort of theme border along the chair-rail, and maybe stencilling some sort of whimsical children's rhymes on it? I don't know. Other people have suggested sort of a barnyard theme, some a garden theme...no concrete suggestions. Basically, whoever takes the initiative is in charge- and no one is interested in taking charge! I'm feeling overwhelmed, yet again. ;>P It's a huge project. Thank you all for your ideas!!

Our NICU is newer...built about 6 years ago. We have it decorated in bright colors and the boards in each of the pods are done in sailboats (appropriate since it's in FL). There is a big bulletin board that has pictures of all the babies that have gone home.

Good luck on your project.

Heather

Oh, we also have a dry eraser board at each babies bedside :)

We asked about cushions on the chairs and infection control nixed that....for obvious reasons Any pillows or boppies that we use have to be covered in that wonderful hospital plastic so that we can spray them down when the parents are done with them.

I was on the planning committee for our unit and it all boiled down to BUDGET....we got the ax on lots of things we wanted. The border for one...we wanted Disney or something and we got the alphabet one because it was cheap and all the nurseries were going to be done in it! Bleh...it isn't very pretty! But just remember....those walls will be there longer than most people will be LOL!

What do you use the dry erase boards for? We cannot use the fabric for the reasons you mentioned above...what about valances for the windows? I suppose we couldn't use those because who would take them down to clean them? Also, when you say bright colors, which ones specifically? I'm voting for gender neutral and soft, soothing, like pale yellow, muted greens, purples, etc. rather than your typical pink or blue. I guess the overall feeling I'm going for is soft, relaxing, but cheerful and happy. We also want to make it feel like more of a community-oriented unit, or family-oriented unit...someone suggested having a local elementary school or even siblings of some of the babies color pictures of baby related things and then matting and framing them to hang in the hallways...or having a big bulletin board where they could be hung. what do you think of that?

We asked about valances...nixed..they are a fire hazard. We have blinds instead, they are light filtering.

We use the dry erase boards to write things like what needs done for that kid, IE Sx once a day, turn once q12hrs, when to draw labs, what we need the parents to do for D/C. We put their first name on the top too :) We also use it to write the parents a note if we need to.

The pictures sound great :) We have an OB that is a professional photographer also and he does black and white portraits of all his patients and their families :) We have several of those thru out the unit...we love them :) A lot of them are of our nurses and their families and a few of our little preemies and their families :)

I really like the idea about the foot print of those lost very good idea!!!!

A hospital a friend worked at got the local schools to send in groups of kids to paint murals, looks realy good to. The colours kids paint with are sooo bright and cheerfull, and cheap! They got a paint supply shop to donate the paints and each school got a certificate and picture of the murals they painted. The kids had a ball too !!