Developmental Care in PICU

[nurseiam]

i have a stong nicu background with a passion for deveolomental care. for the last few years i have beeen in the float pool @ the same facility but in peds. i have spent alot of time in our picu recently and i have noticed that even after the most critical time is over there is very little developmental care. alot of these are cardiac babies or former nicu pts that went home for a day or two and are back. i was looking around but i haven't found anything on developmental care for "infants".

[color=#9acd32]may it is just me but i can't understand stopping a babies narcotic wean for tremors when the are laying flat unswaddled on a warmer....

[NotReady4PrimeTime, RN]

No, it's not just you. There are many NICU-type practices that are not even thought about in PICU, and it drives me NUTS! We don't monitor bili on our neos, unless they're obviously fluorescent, we don't seem to consider the potential for NEC (although I have to say that we've only had one baby develop it in the four and half years I've been here), babes are being nursed sitting up in bed (see my rant about VAP precautions) and not bundled for days at a time, left lying froglegged... We aren't allowed to use warmers per se, because we can't tip the bed to at least 30 degrees, so we cover them up with a Bair Hugger or use warming lights. Frustrating as heck. My observations fall on deaf ears.