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Have you ever wondered where you would be in five, maybe ten years? What you would be doing? I never imagined that I would have a set career goal for myself. Most kids are uncertain about what they want in life; however, I always knew that my career choice was to be a neonatal nurse. I want to spend my life caring for newborn infants. Growing up, I have watched my mother come home from her nursing job and tell me how much she loves caring for other people. It gives her patience, more time management skills, and the love for other people. I will be discussing the duties, education requirements, and salary of a neo natal nurse.
Second Slide First, Neonatal nurse specialists focus on the care of newborn infants up to 28 days after birth and are a vital part of the neonatal care team. There are three different levels of neonatal nursery where a neonatal nurse might work. Each level deals with different care for the newborns: healthy infants (level 1), premature infants (level 2) or the neonatal intensive care unit (level 3). Nurses can decide what level they want their career to be in. Ideally, level 1 of neonatal nursing where nurses care for healthy newborn babies would be the best fit for me.
Nursing is a very common job in the world today and continues to expand. Everyone needs doctors for their health and nurses pertain to that. The duties of neonatal nurses may vary slightly at each hospital, but overall their care tasks are the same. Some of the main tasks for a neonatal nurse are the general care of the infant, for instance, physical ailments, regular changes, feeding and cuddles. In unfortunate cases some babies are not as healthy, so they need special care which refers to the different levels of neonatal nursing. Work hours in this field vary, but typically a neonatal nurse works 12 hours shifts.
For the intensive care unit (NICU), nurses have to sometimes stay longer and work more days because those infants need more nurses to nurture them through their trying times. Third Slide To work in this field of nursing, a person must be a registered nurse with a bachelor’s degree, which is four-year degree (Bureau of Labor Statistics). Then to become a neonatal nurse, a person might want to consider going to graduate school to become a neonatal nurse practitioner. “Entry level requirements for neonatal nurses vary from institution to institution.
Some hospitals may require one year of adult health or medical surgical nursing while others only hire RN’s after graduating from an accredited school or college of nursing and who have passed a state board exam of nursing” (Taylor). Continuing education requirements are mandated by the state. Nurses must have 30 hours, every 2 years of additional training post becoming a nurse. Fourth Slide The annual salary of a neonatal nurse practitioner is $94,000 (Neonatal nurse practitioner salary). It may change depending on if a nurse has a private practice.
I recently interviewed a registered nurse, Mrs. Teresa G. Taylor at York Hospital. She went to Hartford, a community college in Bel Air, Maryland for 3 years. She informed me that she needed basic life support training and 3-4 month orientation to get her job. What Mrs. Taylor finds most rewarding about her job is “getting to help people and knowing every day that she tried to make a difference in someone’s life. ” I enjoyed job shadowing her, and I learned what most nurses do on the job. It was very interesting living the life of a nurse for one day.
One of the most important characteristics a nurse should have is time management. It is very important because nurses usually have a lot to do. They have to be able to manage their time efficiently to ensure everything is completed; as well as obtaining exceptional assessment skills. Most of the time, nurses are taking patient’s temperature, blood pressure, giving shots, etc… “They need to be able to assess the patients correctly and carefully” (Taylor). Fourth Slide I also found a couple baby stories. They are about premature babies. This is Aliyah Lucette.
She was born at 31 and 5 days. Her mother was in labor for 3 days and had only dilated 2 cm the whole entire time so a c sections was given. Aliyah was born @ 32 weeks at 9:00PM weighing 4 1/2 pounds, and measuring 48 cm long. This here is Mia. She was born at 23 weeks and 4 days. Her mother was having really bad Braxton Hicks contractions so she went into the hospital. The doctors assured her everything was fine and were about to send her home when a student nurse asked to feels her belly and was sure she was going into labor. The mother was then moved to another hospital.
The doctors there managed to stop her labor for 6 hours but her contractions started again and her water broke. After 3 hours of strong labor, Mia was born at 9. 00pm the 17th of February 2009. She weighed only 1. 4 pounds. She was so tiny she looked like she could fit in the palm of your hand. The doctors said she only had 5% chance of living more than a day but they wrong. She stayed in the nicu for 122 days. She suffered lots of infections, ROP (which she had laser eye surgery), blood transfusions, sleep apnoea. But she made it. She is now 4 years old ??? picture. & stronger than ever. This is Ben.
He was born at 23 weeks and 6 days on Oct 171990 in the UK, weighing 1. 9 pounds. His mother’s appendix burst while she was pregnant with him so a c section was done immediately. Ben was in the hospital for 3 months and overcame many infections. He was deaf for the first few months of life but he is now fine. His mother was very ill due to the burst of her appendix, while ben was in the hospital so was she, she had to be watched very carefully. Luckily, today they are both healthy. Ben is now 20 years old. Fifth Slide In conclusion, neonatal nursing is a career that I definitely want to pursue.
I can see myself living the life of a nurse in the future. It fits my personality perfectly. I will be helping people, which I take pride in. I have a chance to be around infants all day, which is another thing I love. Also, being a nurse can help me out when my family or children get sick one day. After all the research I have done, I have become even more interested in becoming a neonatal nurse. I am excited to begin my dream. If I want you to take anything from this, its Neo natal nurses are a very big deal in everyone’s life when we are first born. Don’t take them for granted.