Neonatal nursing
A neonate is a newborn baby, specifically a baby in the first 4 weeks of birth. Neonatal care includes providing support for parents and other family members.
In England, a taskforce established by the Department of Health produced a in 2009 which:
- outlined the quality principles required of services providing specialist neonatal care
- provided a consistent definition of three categories of neonatal care
- described three types of units working in a network of units
- described a set of quality metrics
- gave examples of how to address Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention (QIPP)
In England, Neonatal services since 2013 have been managed within Operational Delivery Networks. There are now 11 of these and they provide a network to provide the different levels of care for their population. A high proportion of care for newborn babies, either healthy babies or those with lesser problems, is carried out at the district hospital where they are born. Complex and intensive care, particularly of very preterm babies, is carried out in tertiary centres 鈥� see: .
As foetal and neonatal care has developed, pre-term birth is now more common and the survival rate of sick newborn babies continues to improve. The aims to reduce stillbirths, maternal mortality and serious brain injury 鈥� see: . Actions identified by the Neonatal Critical Care review include expanding critical care services to improve the effectiveness and safety of service provision.
In Wales, around 9-10% of babies born each year need admission to a Neonatal Unit 鈥� see: . The key principles of the Department of Health Toolkit for High Quality Neonatal Services are relevant across the whole of the United Kingdom, with Wales also establishing . Wales recently standardised neonatal nurse competences. All neonatal nurses in Wales will have the same level of education, skills and competence.
In 2017 a national review of Maternity and Neonatal Care in Scotland resulted in recommendations and a five year plan to improve care standards and service provision 鈥� see: and . Scotland led the way in developing Neonatal nurse education and all neonatal nurses educated and trained in Scotland follow the same curriculum and programme of education.
Northern Ireland does not currently have specific national standards for neonatal service provision.
Useful links
Safe staffing of neonatal services
Neonatal nurses care for newborn babies who are born premature or sick – see .
Staff in neonatal and special care baby units need to be available in sufficient numbers and with sufficient knowledge, experience and training to offer safe, effective care to babies and their families.
The minimum standards for staffing levels for neonatal services are:
- Neonatal Intensive care: 1:1 nursing for all babies
- Neonatal Intensive care: 1:1 nursing for all babies
- Neonatal Special care: 4:1 nursing for all babies
- Neonatal Transitional Care 4:1 nursing for all babies
- RCN - Defining staffing levels for children's and young people's services
See:
The recommendations include ensuring:
- 70% of the nursing establishment must be ‘qualified in specialty’ (QIS)
- a minimum of two qualified nurses/midwives should always be on duty (one of whom must be QIS)
- a supernumerary team leader additional to the staff caring for the babies on each shift
- a minimum percentage of registered staff should be:
80% for intensive and high dependency care
70% for special care
See:
There is clear evidence that both the ratio and level of knowledge and skill of registered nurses affects the outcomes of premature infants. See:
Clinical care needs
A newborn baby can suffer from a range of conditions requiring treatment, including infections (see below), conditions which may be life threatening such as necrotizing enterocolitis (see below). Some conditions can have long term consequences and may occur as a result of the management strategies used to save the infants life such as Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (see below). A very significant proportion of newborns will require treatment for Jaundice and the guidelines are kept under periodic review. See: .
Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is a serious illness in which the tissues of the intestine become inflamed and start to die. This results in a paralytic ileus and can lead to perforations of the bowel which allows the contents of the intestine to leak into the abdominal cavity. This can cause a very dangerous sepsis (). Treatment may be surgical or medical and involves management with multiple antibiotics and most of these infants will require Parenteral Nutrition () to avoid starvation and malnutrition while their gut recovers.
Neonatal sepsis is a significant cause of mortality and morbidity in newborn babies. It may be early-onset (within 72 hours of birth) or late-onset (more 4 than 72 hours after birth). Neonatal infection can lead to life-threatening sepsis, which accounts for 10% of all neonatal deaths. Neonatal infection is present in 8 of every 1000 newborn babies and is responsible for 71 of every 1000 neonatal admissions. Of these infections, 82% occur in premature babies (born before 37 weeks) and 81% in low birthweight babies (below 2500 grams). As an indication of how quickly progress is made in neonatal care the .
NICE quality standards (See: and guidelines cover key aspects of care such as specialist respiratory care for babies born prematurely (See: ).
Key aspects and concepts in caring for premature babies and their parents include:
- fully family integrated care
- environment and noise reduction
- positive touch
- skin to skin and Kangaroo care
- supportive positioning
Page last updated - 21/06/2024
