Need some ideas RE: external NICU appearance

iHeartNICU · Sep 2, 2007

A bunch of really beautiful pictures were hung up in the hallway leading to our NICU. I just started working there as an extern so I really don't know if they are former patients but I'm assuming they are. I'm guessing you would need a consent as well but I'm not sure of that either.

MA Nurse · Sep 2, 2007

We are expanding and adding another wing to our existing NICU. Currently, all the walls are pretty bare, and very "institutional" looking.
I'm a member of our FCC committee. One thing I was interested in looking at was what the entrance leading to other NICU's looks like. Do you have paintings or murals on the walls? What about photos of previous NICU patients, sent to you by their families after discharge. If we wanted to post these photos at the entrance to our unit, would we need consent from all the families that have sent them to us?
Is there anything special that you do, to make parents' first impression of your NICU less intimidating or overwhelming?
I would appreciate any help you can give me, or links to websites that show photos of what other NICUs look like.
Thank you very much for any help you can give me.

Our unit has paintings of former patients on the walls leading to the entrance. We also have staff pictures so people will know who we are and what we do.

TiffyRN, BSN, PhD · Sep 2, 2007

I love the pictures posted through our unit. I don't really know their origin but they are large pencil and paper sketches of NICU babies with very completely realistic tubes and attachments. Even to the point where some show NG tubes that are kind of "ooching" out and probably need to be retaped. There is an obvious Down's baby, little guys wearing phototherapy masks, a kid sucking on a volu-feed bottle. They look like some artist just went through our unit and sketched about 20 of our typical kids. Someday I'll ask about who did them.

dawngloves, BSN, RN · Sep 2, 2007

Our unit is so incredibly ugly. :uhoh21:

SteveNNP, MSN, NP · Sep 3, 2007

We have floor to ceiling murals of storybook pages on our halls leading into the unit wings. Stuff like Eric Carle's the Hungry Caterpillar, etc.. Along with quotes and nursery rhymes.

palesarah · Sep 4, 2007

the entrance to our NICU isn't anything special. Only decorations I'm aware of are the green, pink and blue baby footprints (painted with some kind of stamp) that lead to NICU, L&D and postpartum/newborn. I don't even know which color leads to the NICU. Blue? There's a bulletin board with some NICU grads, and there are also portraits of the neonatalogists and NNPs too.

We're moving to a brand new unit in a brand new building in a year!

cathys01 · Sep 7, 2007

I was just at a hospital the other day that had the walls outside the NICU painted with the handprints and signatures of previous NICU graduates. It was a really cool idea and looked great!

Ozboy · Sep 8, 2007

I am the proud father of a miracle baby. Born this year at 22 weeks 6/7 weighing 570g or 1lb 4oz here in adelaide Sth AUSTRALIA. Yes that's right 'down under'. My wife and I lost our first baby at 24 weeks about 5yrs ago. He was born in the same hospital and was even in the same incubator bay, but sadly he only lived for a day.

Our boy born this year is home now and doing really well, he is 7months old(11 weeks corrected) and weighs 5kgs. The walls entering the N.I.C.U. here in Adelaide has big framed proffessionally taken photos of the little miracles when they are about 2 and also an inset photo of them at birth(or few days old). The frames each have a plaque telling gestational age and weight and the baby's name.

As a parent living the trauma it IS encouraging to walk past them each day and know that MAYBE... just maybe, ours could be one of the success stories like the framed photos and be up on the wall in years to come. I found it incredibly inspiring and encouraging.

Good luck with your remodelling. All you guys deserve so much praise. You are all miracle workers. If I was a millionaire I would bring trolleys of money to the N.I.C.U. to thank you all. There is not a word in the english vocabulary that could describe how thankful I am for gifts from God like you all.

2ndGoRound · Sep 9, 2007

My daughter was premature and spent some time in the NICU/Special Care Nursery at one of our local hospitals. I loved the way the Special Care Nursery was set up. In the cooridoor leading to the nursery there were "then and now" pictures and short stories of NICU Graduates. I loved this, it was very comforting to me. The decor of the Special Care Nursery was an aquarium theme in pastel colors. It was adorable. Each pod was decorated with a different fish...my daughter's pod was the angelfish (I thought it was very appropriate ). I remember that the way this nursery was set up and decorated gave me a feeling of home away from home. I have some pictures and would not mind sharing them so just let me know if you are interested.

PS: Thanks to all the NICU nurses for all that you do...you are angels on Earth. The NICU nurses that cared for my daughter made such an impact on me that I am thinking of returning to school for nursing myself. :thankya:

BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN · Sep 18, 2007

We have collages of babies that have been in the unit. We contacted parents and they sent us a letter about their baby and how he/she is doing now and pictures from birth to current. Our PR/art department put them into frames as collages. They are great and the parents love to look at them and read the letters. We also have a bulletin board by the scrub sink that parents can put pictures and notes on. There are other bulletin boards thru out the unit that have pictorials on how to position babies, back to sleep, that kind of thing. We change them out each month. And we have them in Spanish also :)