What type of nurse works with babies?

Nurses General Nursing

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I'm planning on going to school to be a nurse. I would really love to be one that only works with infants, but I am totally not sure on what type of nurse that is.

Can anyone help me out please?

Thanks

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

Read about becoming a nurse and the specialties in nursing on this website: http://www.discovernursing.com/

The nurses who only work with infants are in the obstetrics or labor & delivery area (the nursery) and nicu (neonatal intensive care nurses). Pediatric nurses could possibly specialize in infants only, but I don't know where they would find jobs

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Specializes in NICU, Pediatric Urgent Care.

Most RN's are NICU nurses when working with babies... although the hospital I work at also uses RN's in the well-baby nursery also.

After so many months (varies by hospital from what I can tell) the babies are taken care of in the PICU or pediatrics floor.. it just depends on what age you want to work with i guess :)

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Specializes in Adult Stem Cell/Oncology.

In addition to Labor & Delivery and Neonatal Intensive Car Unit (NICU) there's also Mother/Baby unit, where the moms and their babies go when they leave Labor & Delivery. Of course, you'd be taking care of the mom and the baby, not just the baby. There tend to be quite a few babies on medical/surgical floors as well, but they are there along with older children, all the way up to teens.

The funny thing is that I thought I had my heart set on pediatrics and couldn't imagine doing anything else, then I started volunteering on an Oncology floor where many of the patients are in their 70s and older, and I LOVE it!

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Specializes in Government.

When I went into Pediatrics, I assumed (ah!) that it would be all older, school aged children. I spent at least half my clinical career taking care of babies under 6 months old. Peds can be very baby-heavy, depending on the hospital.

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This interests me too... I would love to work with babies as well. I was thinking Labor/Delivery or NICU or well babies & mommies.

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Quickbeam said:
When I went into Pediatrics, I assumed (ah!) that it would be all older, school aged children. I spent at least half my clinical career taking care of babies under 6 months old. Peds can be very baby-heavy, depending on the hospital.

Very true! Some peds hospitals have floors dedicated to toddlers and under aside from NICU. One hospital I did peds in took any infant after discharge. The other took babies directly from nursery after mom was D/C if they still needed care but weren't sick enough for NICU- bili babes, low grade sepsis, etc. (a 13 bed unit in a 200 bed hospital and 24 bed unit in a 700 bed hospital, respectively)

Another option is homecare/ private duty. Pvt duty nurses (with experience or seniority) can choose to take only infants... I challenge you to do that without blinking and finding yourself caring for a 6 year old and it seems like just yesterday you were helping bring her home from NICU. Homecare nurses might take care of high risk babies- teen or impoverished moms who want some help getting started or need their care monitored (weights, feedings) or need some teaching (diaper changing, how to cut nails, how to safely use a corificeat)

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Specializes in Home Health, Psyc, OR.

I worked for a pediatric home healthcare agency. I worked with only infants and toddlers. Not all of the patients are very young but those are the only clients that I worked with.

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

During my preceptorship in April-May, I worked on what was called an Infant Medical floor. It was a medical floor with 90% of the clients being

Brittany

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Specializes in OB, NICU, Nursing Education (academic).

NICU and Newborn nursery are pretty much your choices if you want to limit to only infants.

Something you might also want to consider is geriatrics. While they are at the other end of the age spectrum, they are high-dependency patients (like infants are). I'm a former NICU nurse, but I have always enjoyed caring for the very elderly patient also.

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If I was to be a labor & delivery nurse would I have a chance to work with the infant/newborn after the mother gave birth? Like would I be able to work in the nursery or not?

If I had to work with the mothers before they gave birth then I guess that wouldn't be so bad.

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Specializes in Government.

Maybe I'm wrong but you seem to be painting yourself into a tiny nursing box here. I don't know anyone in nursing who has gotten to work with their chosen population for a career and never had to go outside those parameters. I'd encourage you to expand your thinking a bit. And I do mean more than "it wouldn't be so bad".

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