Babies born prematurely has been an issue since the beginning of time, but due to the amazing medical advances that have occurred over the last few decades, more and more of the 40,000 preemies born in the USA are surviving. Caring for these infants is the premise behind neonatal nursing specialty that many nurses opt to study for.
Neonatal nursing schools specialize in providing training in this field. Neonatal nursing is a specialty of nursing that works with newborn babies that are born with medical issues all associated with being born before full term. These issues can include: birth defects, infections, cardiac complications, low birth weight, respiratory problems, and other issues that need surgical attention.
Sometimes these babies born well before their time can be hospitalized with complications for months. Usually, the neonatal nurses help to care for these infants during that time period between birth and being able to go home. Some infants may need care up to the first two years of their lives depending on their circumstances.
Neonatal nurses can start off being regular RNs taking care of infants. These duties can included helping the new moms with breastfeeding, looking after the infants that might need a ventilator or IV medications, and also helping to delivery babies.
Working with the parents and families can be a fabulous career and helping these babies grow stronger and healthier can provide a lot of satisfaction.
The longer the opportunity to work with premature babies, the more opportunity there is to grow and learn new skills. Hands-on training is still one of the best ways to become more knowledgeable and working with neonates for awhile can lead to more opportunities. There is the option to take a national certification test to prove the additional knowledge.
Neonatal nursing schools can provide additional training as well to specialize even further in caring for these infants including learning how to assist with heart-lung bypass surgeries. And other skills to work in intensive care units.
If you want to proceed with even more education neonatal nursing schools provide training to take a master’s or doctoral program. This would allow you to work with a team of professionals to take on a more management role in taking care of the infants. You can learn skills such as line placements, intubations, lumbar punctures, and newborn resuscitation.
Other options if you are considering enrolling in neonatal nursing school are to pursue a career as a nurse manager, nurse education, clinical nurse specialist, or developmental care specialist. Nurse Managers run the staffing and administration of the intensive care units, and nurse educators and specialists help to provide training and support to staff. Developmental care specialists provide direct care to the babies.
If you are interested in becoming a neonatal nurse you have to find an accredited neonatal nursing school. You can receive your basic nurse training by obtaining a baccalaureate degree through a college or university that can take 4 years to complete; an associate degree can be obtained in 2 to 3 years through a junior or community college; and a diploma degree can be obtained through a hospital based school of nursing.
There are three levels of Neonatal Nursing:
- Level I Neonatal Nurse provides care for newborn babies that do not have any illnesses or complications.
- Level II Neonatal Nurse cares for premature babies, or full term babies who are ill
- Level III Neonatal Nurse is a highly skilled advanced practice nurse with specialist training in treating infants with life threatening illnesses. These infants need constant assistance and intervention to survive.
So if this is a direction that you with to pursue, then finding the right neonatal nursing school will get you set on the right track to an exciting and rewarding career.