The role of the NICU nurse
Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) nurse are skilled personnel who give special care to newborn babies with complications. These babies stay in the NICO for medications and are taken care by the NICO nurses. NICO nurses play various roles in ensuring positive relationships with parents as infants are under medication.
NICU nurses provide family centered care. This philosophy of care embraces partnerships between the nurses and the families. According to Griffin (2006), basic tenets of family centered care is unrestricted parental presence in the neonatal intensive care units, parental involvement in the infant care giving and open communication within the parents (p. 98). Because, of their continual presence and role at the NICO, nurses are in a unique position to support family centered care. They achieve this, by guiding and directing parents to visit their infants in the intensive care units and interact with them to improve their level of confidence.
Nurses at NICU initiate interactions, create positive relationship between them, and parents. This relationship aims at providing hope and encouragement to the parents (Hunt 2008, p. 48). At this stage, NICU nurses helps parents to establish this cordial relationship by bringing them closer to their infants. Intensive care unit attends to critical situations and therefore, when infants are admitted in this unit, it causes a lot of anxiety and stress to the parent hence requires moral support from the NICU nurses (Chia and Sellick 2005, p. 20). Some parents are weak and may not withstand this experience, hence the role of nurses to take them through such emotions.
NICU nurses provide care to parents by monitoring their progress and keeping in touch with them through constant communication. Nurses keep in contact with the parents and always update them on their situations. In addition, they show moral support through their communication. Situations of the infant may trigger emotions leading to heath complications among parents. Therefore, these nurses are essential in curbing such like occurrences. According to Wigert et al (2006), nurses play an important role in supporting parents by enabling them to connect with them when they are in the intensive care unit (p. 39). Research has suggested that sensitive nurses play fundamental role in supporting the needs of parents, which helps them get strength as they come to their sense about their infants’ situation (Karl et al 2006, p. 258). Parents that receive this support feel encouraged and confidence. They also feel appreciated, respected and cared when treated well. Furthermore, NICU nurse ensures that parents are free from distress and stress especially when their infants have severe health complications. They encourage and keep in contact with the parents helping them to manage their stress.
NICO nurses provide education to parents of infants in the intensive care unit. They train parents on better ways to avoid stress and on remaining positive about the situation (Bialoskurski et al 1999, p. 74). They guide and counsel parents on how to manage their anxiety and stress caused by the situation. Parents at this time are always in tension because; they cannot comprehend why their infants have to go through the situation (Hayley 2007, p. 75). Guiding and counseling serves to trigger their psychological inclination making them to approach and face the situation with positive attitude (Bialoskurski et al 1999, p. 74).
Nurses help parents to alleviate their anxiety. According to Flacking et al (2006), parents experience fear when they give birth to children with complications and sickly. This cause what he refers to emotional chaos. This is because the situation may appear to be unusual and unexpected therefore causes feelings of apprehension, anxiety and exclusion that make the parent to have difficulties in expressing their needs verbally. The presence of NICU nurses helps such parents to reduce this anxiety by encouraging them. Consequently, Johnson (2007) asserts that parents given support, encouragement, emotional support and education at the clinic feel satisfied and this helps in alleviating their anxiety. This closeness and encouragement also helps to reduce the level of stress and gives them strength and knowledge and connects them to their sick infants (Mok and, Leung 2006, p. 733).
Nurses need to relate positively with parents through their actions and communication. Communication is essential instrument in creating relationship at the NICO. When nurses communicate by providing constant feedback on the health status of infants, it motivates the parents at the same time helps in reducing levels of anxiety (ORapiriyajkul et al 2007, p. 259). Parenthood is enhanced through communication in neonatal clinics. Communication furthermore helps to build confidence among parents as it makes them feel confidence and positive their infant health status.
NICO nurses play a role of patient intervention. The nurses have requisite skills and knowledge on how to intervene in situations where the patients at the health center are at risk. In this perspective, these nurses should be vigilance to ensure that the state of the parents as well as that of the infant are monitored closely (ORapiriyajkul et al 2007, p. 259). Some parents may require close attention and therefore, it is the duty of the NICO nurses to ensure that such mothers are well attended to and taken to the right places. Therefore, in the circumstances where, there is disorders coming from parents due to stress, they have the responsibility of containing the situation and ensuring that everything is normal as the infants continue to receive medical attention.
In conclusion, as illustrated in the discussion, neonatal intensive care unit nurses play various roles concerning promotion of positive relationships between them and the parents. These nurses have adequate training and skills in this area and therefore have the obligation to ensure that they maintain this positive relationship. It is difficult for many parents to face such situations and therefore, require people to help them manage their anxieties and stress as their infants continue to receive medication at the neonatal intensive care unit. The nurses play various roles such as provision of family centered care, support and monitoring of their progress, ensuring that they encourage them and counseling and guide them on how to manager their anxieties and stress. They also play a role of patient care and ensure open communication between them and the parents. These duties provided by the neonatal intensive care unit nurses are changes at times and therefore, they should be well trained on how to handle extreme situations where the parents are highly overwhelmed by the situation. The training should be skewed on the psychology of the parents. Having the skills and ability to study and to understand parent’s mind and feelings will boost their service delivery during execution of their roles.
Reference list
Bialoskurski, M, Cox, C, & Hayes, J 1999, ‘The Nature of Attachment in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit,’ The Journal of Perinatal & Neonatal Nursing, vol. 13 no. 1, pp. 66‑77.
Chia, P, & Sellick, K 2005, ‘The Attitudes and Practices of Neonatal Nurses in the Use of Kangaroo Care,’ Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing, Vol. 23 no. 4, pp. 20‑27.
Flacking, R, Ewald, U, Nyqvist, K, & Starrin, B 2006, ‘Trustful bonds: A key to “becoming a mother” and to reciprocal breastfeeding. Stories of mothers of very preterm infants at a neonatal unit,’ Social Science & Medicine, vol. 62 no,. pp. 70‑80.
Franklin, C 2006, ‘The Neonatal Nurse’s Role in Parental Attachment in the NICU,’ Critical Care Nursing Quarterly, Vol. 29 no. 1, pp. 81‑85.
Griffin, T, ‘Family centered care in the NICU,’ Journal of perinat neonatal nursing, vol. 20 no. 1, pp. 98-102.
Hayley, K 2007, ‘Getting connected: How nurses can support mother/infant attachment in the neonatal intensive care unit,’ Australia journal of advanced nursing, Vol. 27 no. 3, pp. 75-83.
Hunt, F 2008, ‘The importance of kangaroo care on infant oxygen saturation levels and bonding,’ Journal of Neonatal Nursing, Vol. 14 no. 2, pp. 47‑51.
Johnson, A 2007, ‘The Maternal Experience of Kangaroo Holding,’ JOGNN Clinical Research, Vol. 36, pp. 568‑573.
Karl, D, Beal, J, O’Hare, C, & Rissmiller, P 2006, ‘Reconceptualizing the Nurse’s Role in the Newborn Period as an Attacher,’ The American Journal of Maternal Child Nursing, Vol. 31 no. 4, pp. 257‑262.
Mok, E, & Leung, S 2006, ‘Nurses as providers of support for mothers of preterm infants,’ Journal of Clinical Nursing, Vol. 15 no. 6, pp. 726‑734.
Orapiriyakul, R, Jirapaet, V, & Rodcumdee, B 2007, ‘Struggling to Get Connected: The Process of Maternal Attachment to the Preterm Infant in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit,’ Thai Journal of Nursing Research, vol. 11 no. 4, pp. 251‑264.
Wigert, H, Johanson, R, Berg, M, & Hellstrom, H 2006, ‘Mothers’ experiences of having their newborn child in a neonatal intensive care unit,’ Nordic College of Caring Science, vol. 20 no. 1, p. 35‑41.
