Neonatal Nursing In The United States

Compared to midwifery, or other adult healthcare specializations in nursing, the specialized medical healthcare area of neonatal nursing is a relatively new one. This specialty came into being in the 1960's when the United States healthcare industry found itself in search of nursing professionals to take on the specialized care of neonates.

"Neonates" is the term used to describe newborns during the first 28 days of their life, and a neonatal nurse is a healthcare professional responsible for providing a neonate with the kind of care appropriate to this stage in life.

A neonatal nurse is normally stationed at a hospital's nursery section or in the maternity wards within a community. In a lot of cases, hospitals have three levels for their nursery: Level I houses neonates that are born healthy, and in a majority of hospitals, this level is rapidly dissolving since many mothers and healthy babies seldom spend more than a day or two in the hospital. In fact, many mothers prefer to share a room with their healthy babies for a couple of days before checking out.

Level II is for babies with special needs, such as those born prematurely, or those who have some form of illness or another. Neonatal nursing care in these cases involves special feedings through intravenous therapy, use of supplemental oxygen, and allowing the neonates to develop some more before releasing them to their families.

In Level III, neonates with complicated medical conditions are cared for by neonatal nurses, assisted by high technology such as surgery, ventilators and other special equipment. These newborns may be very premature or extremely small for their age. Direct care is provided for these neonates in Level III, a level normally found only in the bigger general hospitals and children's hospitals.

For this form of specialized care, a neonatal nurse will need to be a registered nurse who has completed a 2-year Associate or 4-year Bachelor's degree in Nursing before passing a licensing exam given by their state and going on continued study for this particular nursing specialty.

Many hospitals and medical institutions will require a neonatal nurse to have one or two years of experience in surgical nursing or adult nursing before allowing a healthcare professional to enter the field of neonatal nursing. Registered nurses who want to work with newborns can also complete a graduate school clinical nurse specialist degree to become a neonatal nurse practitioner.