Neonatal Nursing Essay

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Neonatal nursing is subspecialty of nursing. This subspecialty of nursing works with infants born with a variety of needs, and problems. These problems range from prematurity, infections, cardiac malformations, birth defects, and surgical problems. Neonatal describes the first month of a newborns life, even though infants can have problems that will continue for several months. Neonatal Nurses usually care for infants who experience problems shortly after birth. Neonatal Nurses care for infants from birth till discharge, some may care for the infant up to about two years of age. Survival rates of infants with illnesses, or problems have increase by ten times in the past 15 years due to medical advances.
First step to becoming a Neonatal Nurse is enrollment in an accredited school of nursing. Basic nursing education can be achieved through 3 varied ways. The baccalaureate degree is earned through a college or university, and usually takes about four years to obtain. A benefit to this route is the greater amount of opportunities you have with this degree. An associate degree can be earned at a junior or community college in 2-3 years. Finally, a diploma degree can be obtained through a hospital-based school of nursing. The remaining programs are often affiliated with a community college and provide students with more flexibility for continuing toward a bachelor's degree. After becoming a registered nurse, the ideal step would to work with a hospital that has a NICU.
Numerous Neonatal Nurses work in a hospital setting, they also serve in the community providing home care, or follow-up of high-risk infants. A Neonatal Intensive Care Unit or NICU is a special, and separate area of a hospital that is dedicated to the care of sick, premature, or injured babies. One of the main reasons infants are admitted in to NICU is because they are considered premature. They are

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