this is a paper i had to write for my nursing class. let me know what you think before i turn it in

Medical Careers—Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Nurse
Olivia Barnwell

Neonatal intensive care unit nurses are registered nurses who specialize in the care of new born babies who are delivered per-term. Most people in the medical field consider the NICU to be the most challenging field in nursing. Every year in the United States more than 5,500 babies are born weighing less than one pound. Sadly, twenty years ago most of these babies would not make it through the first week of life.

To become a NICU nurse you have to go to college to obtain at least your associates degree in nursing, and have at least two years of experience in neonate care. Some things that Neonatal nurses have to do are monitoring the baby’s lungs and heart rate closely, making sure they are receiving the needed nutrition, and recording their growth and development properly for the doctor. The NICU is an intense part of the hospital, because when something goes wrong, you know it can be fatal. The smallest thing can stop or reverse any progress that has been made.

The salary of a neonatal nurse varies, but is anywhere from $51,588 to $83,020, depending on education and job experience. The need for neonatal nurses is forever growing. The need for any kind of nurse is never ending, because there are so many different fields of nursing. There are also many levels of education, for example CNA and RN, RN or LNP. To get the best job you would want to have the highest education possible.

Neonatal nurses generally switch from the NICU to Labor and delivery every month or so. You can choose to stay in on or the other, but most choose to switch back and forth. In labor and delivery you would tend to the mothers needs while she is in labor, and then the baby’s needs when he or she is born. You would monitor the mother through the delivery process, and then take the baby, clean it up, weigh it, record its length, take the first picture and foot print the birth certificate. Then the nurse would then take the baby back to its mother, and notify a lactation specialist.

Many things can occur with a pre-mature baby, here are a few. When a baby is born before 37 weeks gestation, there is always a chance its lungs are not fully developed and ready to take that first breath. In most cases, if the doctor knows the mother is going to deliver early, the mother will be given a steroid that progresses the fetus’s lungs to mature faster. Preemies can also suffer from blindness, due to lack of retinal development. Most people who have preemies have their eyes checked 2-3 times a year. The smallest living baby was born at 8.6 ounces, about the size of an average cell phone. She experienced many developmental delays in the first few months, including breathing, eating, and she had trouble getting enough sleep. Due to modern day medical science, she left the hospital at 5.9 pounds and she was 19 inches long.

The nurses who work in the NICU are strong willed and only want every baby they come in contact with to survive. They work countless hours of overtime to ensure that their assigned baby is taken care of. Many of the nurses get emotionally attached to their patients, and it is bitter sweet when they see them leave the NICU. They also get attached to the families, because they know exactly what they are going through. The every day struggles of working in the NICU are stress full to say the least, but any time they see a child grow an ounce, breath on its own, learn to suck from a bottle, and even be discharged, it’s an extremely rewarding experience.