I need help from a neonatal nurse!!

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My name is Brittne' and I am currently a junior in high school. I am doing a career fair project on Neonatal Nursing because it is the career that I plan on persuing. I need info on what a typical day for a neonatal nurse would be (must give AM duties-lunch duties-PM duties). Anyone who can answer this i would truely appreciate it.Thanks:)

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Specializes in Obstetrics, M/S, Family medicine.

Upon admission, a newborn's vital signs are taken (heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature, sometimes Oxygen saturation if baby is having questionable respiratory effort or blood sugar check if there were risk factors). If a baby is cold (a common issue that newborns experience) he or she needs to be warmed up. We either put the baby skin to skin with the mom or if mom's recovery is difficult, we wrap the baby in warm blankets until the temperature is stable (97.7F or above). If baby's blood sugar was low, I will have the mom feed right away and check the blood sugar again after the feeding. After baby is warm and blood sugar is normal, I will bathe the baby and give him his first hepatitis B vaccine (baby's receive vitamin K shot and Erythromycin eye ointment while in the labor and delivery unit).

During the baby's stay at the hospital, we do a full assessment of the baby every 6 hours. This includes vital signs, checking baby's coloring, capillary refill, bowel sounds, feeding/voiding/stooling pattern, weight, TcB results (monitors bilirubin levels in baby). If baby appears jaundice (yellow in color) or the TcB level is high, we will order a bilirubin level via the blood (more accurate than the skin test). If baby has vital signs that are out of normal range or if baby is not feeding well, we may order lab tests to see if baby may have an infection. Along with the baby's symptoms we also look at risk factors for baby (mom had an infection in the birth canal, mom's bag of water was broken for a long time, etc).

LMK if you need anything specific.

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this exact thread appears in the NICU forum:

A Day in the Life of a NICU Nurse - Nursing for Nurses

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