Transcription:

Deborah Howell (Host): Welcome. Parents of newborns are sometimes called to spend time with their babies in the neonatal intensive care unit or NICU. My guest today are Cara Wongngamnit Director of Newborn Services, and Kelly Carrico, a clinical nurse and manager of the NICU at Deaconess, and today we'll take you through a parent's guide to your NICU stay welcome Cara.

Cara Wongngamnit: Hello. How are you?

Deborah Howell (Host): Good and welcome Kelly.

Kelly Carrico: Hello. We are glad to be here.

Deborah Howell (Host): So nice to have you both with us. Kelly, let's begin with you. The Women's Hospital is a level three hospital. What does that mean?

Kelly Carrico: well as a level three hospital, we care for mothers with complex pregnancies and newborns who require intensive care. In our Level three NICU, our team provides comprehensive care for sick babies born at all gestational age and birth weights using state-of-the-art technology. Our hospital has a wide variety of staff on site in our NICU, including our neonatologist and advanced practice providers who are available 24 hours, seven days a week.

Deborah Howell (Host): Oh, that's wonderful, Cara, how does a baby end up in the NICU?

Cara Wongngamnit: Most babies cared for in the NICU are premature. They have a low birth weight or some kind of condition that requires special care, such as restorative stress, low blood sugar, feeding issues, or a possible infection.

Deborah Howell (Host): Got it. Now, Kelly, when the baby is actually in the NICU, what kind of professional care are they getting?

Kelly Carrico: In our NICU, we conduct daily multidisciplinary grounds. Our NICU team consists of neonatologists. We have advanced practice providers, registered nurses, registered respiratory therapists, occupational and physical therapists, also dieticians, lactation consultants, social workers, a NICU pharmacist and a discharge specialist that participate in the rounds and care for babies. And one of the things I wanted to mention, it takes many disciplines to care for our babies in the NICU.

Deborah Howell (Host): I can only imagine. And Cara, do parents get to stay with their child in the NICU?

Cara Wongngamnit: We encourage our parents to be with a baby as much as possible. Parents are welcome in the NICU anytime day or night, with the exceptions of 6:30 to 7:45 AM and 6:30 to 7:45 PM and this is due just as our nursing report time. So for privacy of the patients, we do close the unit for small time, but other than that, it's open 24 hours. The unit may also close when a baby is having a special procedure or care done.

Deborah Howell (Host): Okay. And, what is your nursing report time? What happens during that time?

Cara Wongngamnit: During nursing report, the nurse hands off report to the oncoming nurse. They talk about the total baby care. From time of admission, what has happened the last 24 hours, what our focus is for the day and a shift in the next shift's focus.

Deborah Howell (Host): Okay. Now Kelly, where do parents stay if they don't live in town and their baby's in the NICU?

Kelly Carrico: Parents may be eligible to stay during the day or overnight at the Ronald McDonald House. The Ronald McDonald House is located on the Deepness Gateway campus. The Ronald McDonald House provides a homelike environment for our NICU families offering comfort and support so parents can focus on their baby during hospitalization. One of the benefits of having the Ronald McDonald House on our campus is that our parents do not go outside of the building to get to the Ronald McDonald House, so they remain inside of the building and they can go back and forth. Which is a great benefit to our parents.

Deborah Howell (Host): That is wonderful. You feel like you're under almost one roof.

Kelly Carrico: Yes, definitely.

Deborah Howell (Host): Okay. That's great. Cara, what kind of education do parents get when they're babies in the NICU?

Cara Wongngamnit: Education for the parents is very important. Parents do receive education about basic baby care, feeding, bathing, temperature taking, skin to skin care, soothing techniques, developmental care, safe sleep, touch, and massage techniques.

Deborah Howell (Host): Wow, that's a lot. I hope you give them a pamphlet when they leave so they can remember all that good stuff.

Cara Wongngamnit: Absolutely, yes. They get quite a bit of discharge information.

Deborah Howell (Host): Good. Good. And Kelly, how do you prepare the family to care for the baby when they do go home?

Kelly Carrico: Discharge preparation is so important for our families. Preparing for discharge actually starts the day of admission. Parents are encouraged to actively participate in the care of their baby as soon as possible in the NICU, for example, changing a baby's diaper or taking a baby's temperature. Prior to going home, parents will have the opportunity to stay in a parent room, by rooming in. Parents have the opportunity to care for their baby with the NICU staff available to answer questions and provide support to the families. Before discharge, our NICU team will review discharge instructions, nutritional needs, developmental needs and address any concerns or questions that the parents may.

Deborah Howell (Host): Perfect. And I'm, assuming, Having the parents have that hands on experience while in the nicu, it kind of gets into their muscle memory, so they kind of know what they're doing when they get home.

Kelly Carrico: Yes, we have many parents that come in and they want to be involved with their baby's care. As I had mentioned taking the temp, changing the diaper, feeding their babies, it's so important for our parents to be involved because if you think about it, It is their baby, so we want them to be as comfortable as possible.

Deborah Howell (Host): And a lot of these are first time parents. I would imagine?

Kelly Carrico: Yes, they are.

Deborah Howell (Host): Cara, is there a follow up with these babies when they're discharged?

Cara Wongngamnit: We do have a follow up. We have a dedicated NICU discharge coordinator. She, goes through every works with the doctor and then multidisciplinary team to make sure all the follow up needs are scheduled. The follow appointment will be made with the baby's primary doctor for a few days after the baby is just charged for the NICU. Babies may be referred to developmental follow up clinic to access their developmental performance in areas of communication, growth and fine motor skills. The purpose of the clinic is to identify developmental delays as early as possible, and connect baby with appropriate interventions to reach important developmental milestones.

Deborah Howell (Host): Yes, those milestones are so important. And Kelly, how do rural hospitals care for these babies that don't have NICUs?

Kelly Carrico: Our hospital staff provides training. Resources and educational sport through our outreach and SIM program, to assist staff with optimal stabilization of babies after delivery, and also early identification of high risk babies. Rural hospitals will facilitate a consultation with our neonatologists and request transfer of care when special vice care is needed. So if a transport is needed, the Women's Hospital Neonatal transport team has a highly skilled team that will provide the transport for that hospital.

Deborah Howell (Host): Now we're getting to the end of our conversation today. Is there anything, Kelly, that you'd like to add?

Kelly Carrico: There are many disciplines that care for the baby and that we are always educating our parents, in regards to how to care for the baby. And then also it's so important to listen to the parents and address their concern. Answer their questions because we want them to be as comfortable as possible before they go home with their baby.

Deborah Howell (Host): Right. And how about you Cara?

Cara Wongngamnit: I think Kelly said it very, very well. Our parents and our patients are our focus. It's very important for our families to go home safely together and be prepared to take care of the baby once they do get home. Our nurses have a lot of education skills and training. So we really try to work together as a team to make sure that the baby goes home as soon as possible.

Deborah Howell (Host): Well, this is such excellent information. We wanna thank you both so much for being with us today. Kara and Kelly, we really appreciate you taking time to enlighten us and to of course, care for our tiniest patients.

Kelly Carrico: Thank you so much.

Cara Wongngamnit: Well, thank you.

Deborah Howell (Host): And for more information, you can check out our website at www.deaconess.com/theWomen'sHospital. And that wraps up this episode of the podcast series from Deaconess, the Women's Hospital, A Place for All Your Life. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and all the other Deaconess Women Hospital podcasts. For more health tips and updates. You can follow us on your social channels. This is the Women's Hospital, A Place for All Your Life. I'm Deborah Howell. Thanks for listening and have yourself a great day.