NeoMomRN

Maybe it is just me, but in the past 3 1/2 years that I have been doing NICU, I have seen an increase in NEC and death to follow. The concern is that the increase has really only been in the past year or so. And alot of the NEC victims have passed away d/t perfs. Has anyone else seen an increase in perfs and NEC since the standard has said to start feeds early? And how many of ya'll are doing full feeds at 8 days old of full strength breast milk on a 24 weeker? Just wondering.... Any info and opinions are appreciated.....

I've never heard of it. Can someone tell me how I get info on it. I think it may help some of the burnt out lazy folks in the unit. Thanks....

Our ratios are much different. We have an Intensive side and a progressive side to our unit right now. We are in the process of getting a new unit where we will be combining patient types. The way it is right now is that we usually have 2:1 in Intensive and 4:1 in Progressive. We don't do Echmo or Nit Tx, so we don't worry about that. We don't have many surgeries, but those post op patients usually do get another patient assigned to thier nurse along with them. The only 1:1's we have are babies who are about to pass and are being "coded" at shift change. Our unit is a bit understaffed, but our hospital will not allow any more hires. I can't wait unit we open our new unit and we get really busy and short staffed.... We will then see what our ratios get to be like.