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Neonatal intensive care requires a lot of effort from professionals and caretakers alike. While this may be under different circumstances, it still highlights the infant’s need for round-the-clock medical care. Due to this, several parents decide to go for this type of care at home to prevent extended hospital stays.
To learn more about the importance of creating a highly-controlled neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at home, keep reading the article below.
Steps to Create the Ideal Neonatal Home Care Settings
In newborn intensive care, creating an optimal home environment that ensures the baby’s safety, comfort, and well-being is essential. To achieve this kind of setting, follow these seven essential steps and tips!
Assessing the Baby’s Medical and Developmental Needs
In these situations, you need to know the baby’s unique medical requirements, such as equipment, medication, and feeding routines. In this step, you also have to work closely with healthcare providers and home care teams to develop tailored care plans.
These groups have nurses who deliver quality care from the comfort of your home. Moreover, they help your child transition seamlessly from the hospital to home-based nursing supervision.
Children with long-term illnesses usually need this form of personalized care. This helps them live a more comfortable and safe life without needing to be in the hospital 24/7.
A child need this type of specific care if he/she have:
- Respiratory distress;
- Hemodynamic instability;
- Severe infections; or
- Disorders that affect the organ system.
Creating a Safe and Functional Space
When it comes to nursing care for infants, creating a secure and functional space is critical. Essential components of the ideal home care area include a designated quiet, clean, and temperature-controlled space. In this way, the infant is comfortable and safe in the room where the temperature can be adjusted based on the infant's medical needs.
Another aspect to look into is ensuring easy access to medical equipment and supplies. In these circumstances, the utmost priority is always the young patient’s health. Thus, convenient and quick access to critical supplies is important.
It’s also necessary to minimize hazards for both the nursing professional and neonatal patient. This includes keeping electrical cords organized and maintaining hygiene. Some of the tips for infection control are:
- Basic hand hygiene
- Cleaning and disinfection
- Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
Supporting the Baby’s Development and Comfort
Newborn development is essential for all infants, whether they’re neonatal patients or not. That said, nurturing their development during this stage is vital to ensuring their success as they continue to grow.
In these cases, a few of the ways to foster their growth and comfort include sensory stimulation. A few examples of these are proper lighting and noise control to mimic a soothing neonatal intensive care environment. Depending on their condition, nurses may also use developmental aids like tummy time mats and positioning pillows.
Even under a controlled home care environment, skin-to-skin contact with your newborn is still essential. As parents, especially mothers, this helps soothe your baby down, especially when they’re going through health issues. A few of the benefits of skin-to-skin contact are regulating their temperature, breathing, and heart rate, boosting milk supply, and stimulating your baby’s feeding instincts.
However, in critical neonatal care, your baby may need more than breastmilk. In a lot of these situations, healthcare professionals advise parents to administer formula to help sustain the baby.
Training and Education for Caregivers
Although at-home nursing care for infants provides professionals who are well-versed in the field, parents and caregivers should also educate themselves on their child’s care. A few of the necessary trainings include:
- Medical equipment use
- Emergency protocols
- Basic neonatal care
In this stage, home-based care providers play an important part in supporting and educating family members. While they offer 24/7 care, families and caregivers should still learn the basics in cases of emergencies or when a nurse is unavailable or still on the way.
Building a Support Network
Another perk of working with home-based nursing services is that your family not only doesn’t get to stay at hospitals for extended periods, but they also provide you with a support network. They offer respite care that gives families the opportunity to recharge and smoothen the transition from hospital care to home.
Aside from equipment and medication management, other support services also integrate every patient’s health, function, and quality of life goals. Your child’s designated nurse manages their entire care spectrum, including coordinating specialty care services, occupational, speech, and physical therapy, and education later in life.
Monitoring and Adapting the Environment Over Time
A lot can still change in neonatal intensive care since the baby’s needs may evolve as they grow. So, parents and caregivers should also work closely with home care professionals to ensure that everything is in line with the patient’s requirements.
These personalized and home-based care healthcare providers conduct the necessary regular assessments. This is done to make sure that the existing home environment continues to meet their medical and developmental needs.
Get Neonatal Home Care from Nursing Evolutions Today
Since at-home neonatal intensive care offers multiple benefits, a lot of parents need guidance on what to prepare for when transitioning from hospital support. However, turning your home into a safe space for your child requires a lot of work. Fortunately, providers like Nursing Evolutions can aid you during this period.
Our services include habilitative and transitional care, comfort and hospice care, and respite care. With our mission, we aim to provide each patient with the individualized care coordination they need to thrive from zero to five. For more information, call us at 206-420-3484 today and we’ll do our best to offer full support for your family.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Learn about NICU through the following questions and answers!
What conditions are considered neonatal intensive care?
Intensive newborn care is composed of various complex cases. A few of these are airway birth defects, cardiac defects, bladder and genital issues, tumors, malformations, and more.
How much do neonatal intensive care unit nurses make?
The income NICU nurses make varies depending on the organization they work for. Home care nurses from Nursing Evolutions earn up to $40-$50 per hour. Additionally, they also have benefits like a 401K with maximum company match, profit sharing, paid time off, medical, dental, and vision coverage, etc.