Re: Volunteer Cuddling

Originally Posted by Stanley-RN2B

You can volunteer to cuddle babies???

That's awesome, I need to look into that here. Wait, would it be weird for a man to be interested in that?

Awww c'mon. You're not scared of what other people will think are ya?
We have several cuddlers. They can hold whoever the nurses think is ok to be up. They have different comfort levels and so do the nurses. Some will change diaper, swaddle baby, remove them from the isolette and get themselves all aranged without help. Others, it's more like we just find them a chair and hand them the kid. Either way, it helps, especially with the NAS kids.
They are volunteers through the hospital that have chosen to go through a seperate "cuddler" class. I think the hospital provides some liability insurance for the
volunteers.

Re: Volunteer Cuddling

@stanley - totally not odd to be interested in that. i know of a (male) flight nurse that cuddled preemies in his spare time. his pic cuddling a baby is actually on the hospital's nicu cuddler brochure

Re: Volunteer Cuddling

We have cuddlers in our level II nursery and sometimes they are a godsend when you have 4 babies and some of them are screaming! I know they go through an extenive screening process and usually they just hold or comfort the more stable feeder/grower kids. Usually the nurse will wrap the baby up and hand them to the cuddler who will sit and rock the baby, it's up to the nurse's discretion but I have rarely seen them hold a baby from an isolette. I don't think they really do care either. Most of them are girls from the university (we're a teaching hospital) but we have some middle aged volunteers including a guy too. They are usually there on days and early evenings, unfortunately not many choose to come in on nights.

Re: Volunteer Cuddling

The level 3 unit @ which I used to work had a well-established cuddler program; there is always a long waiting list. The program is administered thru the Volunter Dep't. The prospective cuddler applies there, follows all their rules and regs, including yearly safety, HIPAA, disaster, whatever inservices, yearly TB screening. They also have to get an annual Flu shot.

There were 2 or 3 nurses in the NICU who scheduled the cuddlers, arranged orientation, which included heavy emphasis on infection control and handwashing. We had 2 or 3 gentlemen, occasionally college students, altho they usually liked to help the techs run errands and replace stock/linens.

It worked out very well. We did have one volunteer who wanted to read the charts, and started to quiz us about specifics--she lasted ~ 2 hours. But that's about the only time we had to "fire" someone. They were awesome when we had chronics or long staying babies--any baby who was irritable and difficult to calm. A terrific alternative to trying to take care of your other babies while your little crybaby was raising the roof as well as the tension level in the unit.

There needs to be official sanction in terms of Policies and Procedures, and some members of the nursing staff need to coordinate the group. If you have a Volunteer Dept, start there. Decide what you want them to do: ours fed babies, changed diapers (and saved them to be weighed!) and held them. We had lots of rockers and gliders. They could hold babies w/IVs, nasal cannulae, NG feeding tubes @ the discretion of the baby's nurse and their own comfort level.

Good Luck!!

Re: Volunteer Cuddling

I was a volunteer cuddler in our NICU for a while (it reinforced that I wanted to go into nursing). It was amazing. I mainly went to the Special Care Nursery as the nurses felt more comfortable with me there (obviously) but sometimes was also in the Level III area. I fed those who were able to do nipple feedings, and mainly held/cuddled/talked to/sang to them, changed some diapers. Some of the babies were hooked up to several machines, others didn't have anything connected to them (I just started nursing school last week so I'm not familiar yet with the types!)

I got to where I was working with one patient in the Level III every week for a while, he was on all kinds of treatments and all kinds of wires (so the nurses would hand him to me while I sat in a rocking chair, and I wasn't supposed to move him around much) but he didn't get family visitors and they wanted him to get some attention. It was great reading to him.

Our hospital had an extensive volunteer application process that was even more detailed if you wanted NICU. NICU volunteers had to be at least 21 years old (other areas didn't have the age req't). Everyone had to have a drug screen, plus a background check.

Re: Volunteer Cuddling

Our NICU has 112 beds-level III and level II combined. We use volunteers as much as possible. I'm in the level II area, but I know they are utilized in level III as well. In level II they can change diapers, bottle feed babies and hold-rock, sing, read to-babies. They are life savers! We have quite a large number of regular volunteers now. They have to apply, go through extensive training, do at least 50 hours outside of the NICU as a volunteer and take a course specific to volunteering in the NICU. Our hospital's website has more information if you'd like to contact the volunteer organizer to see what all we require-http://www.orlandohealth.com/OrlandoRegional/GetInvolved/Volunteer/WinniePalmerHospitalVolunteerServises/WinniePalmerHospitalVolunteerServises.aspx?Pid=154 8&Wid=1

Re: Volunteer Cuddling

Our hospital is just starting this program! I am already a float volunteer...and I can't WAIT to start this!! I am working on my pre-reqs for nursing...and I want to work in OB/Nursery.....so this is the perfect introduction!

Re: Volunteer Cuddling

I work in a hospital for severely disabled children and we have "ward grannies" that sing to the kids, read them stories, hold their hands (if they're to big/to sick to nurse), take them for walks/push their wheelchairs and generally just be there. It's beautiful.