EACH YEAR APPROXIMATELY 460,000 infants—nearly 12 percent of all babies born in the U.S.—are born prematurely.1 Technological advances in the medical and nursing care of premature infants over the past decade have increased survival rates among preterm newborns, especially of very low birth weight (VLBW) infants. Survival rates are as high as 49 percent for infants weighing 501–750 gm at birth, 85 percent for infants weighing 751–1,000 gm, 93 percent for infants weighing 1,001–1,250 gm, and 96 percent for infants weighing 1,251–1,500 gm.2 Although 50–60 percent of VLBW infants have normal outcomes, morbidity rates range from 40 to 50 percent.3 Because of this incidence of morbidity, premature infants require comprehensive primary care follow-up after discharge from the NICU.
PUT YOURSELF IN THIS SITUAtion. You have three drips to remix, your oscillator patient is starting to crash, and you have just been asked to work a double shift because the hospital is short staffed. The unit secretary informs you that the mother of one of your former primary patients is on the telephone and is hysterical. A physician at the neonatal follow-up clinic has just told her that her baby has cerebral palsy (CP). She wants reassurance, information, and input from you because you established a rapport with her when her infant was in the neonatal intensive care unit and she trusts you. You remember cerebral palsy from your pediatric rotation in nursing school, but you don’t see many actual diagnoses made in the NICU, and your recollection is foggy.
AS NEONATAL NURSES, WE ARE oriented to the immediate emergencies and acute care issues in the NICU setting. The parents of the NICU infant, however, may be looking to the future and seeking information, reassurance, and, in some cases, guarantees. Therefore, as information becomes available to parents via the Internet and other sources, it is imperative that NICU nurses be more knowledgeable and aware of the various problems that may occur with NICU graduates as they grow and develop after discharge.
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