Neonatal nurse practitioners provide advanced care for all newborns at Beebe
At Beebe Healthcare, a team of six neonatal nurse practitioners provides advanced care for newborns. Because of the in-house NNPs, Beebe can keep mothers and babies together in situations that otherwise may have caused the infant to be transported to another facility, all while maintaining the safety of mother and baby.
Often, when new parents are deciding on where to deliver their baby, they look for hospitals with a neonatal intensive care unit or NICU. However, because Beebe has the around-the-clock NNP coverage, it can ease parents' anxiety to know that in case of complications, their infant will have immediate medical care from a specially trained NNP who is just steps away.
NNPs provide services including attending to any deliveries of high-risk babies, including pre-term, those with known medical or surgical issues, and those in fetal distress. They are skilled at evaluating and diagnosing early medical issues, including respiratory distress and other urgent health issues that can be present at birth; managing medications and IV therapy; caring for special needs infants such as those with neonatal hypoglycemia who require glucose monitoring, supplemental feeding and IV fluids; caring for late pre-term infants (born after 34 weeks and before 37 weeks) who may have issues with temperature regulation, feeding, and glucose regulation, and are at risk for respiratory compromise; caring for infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome who are born exposed to opioids; ordering and interpreting X-rays; and providing daily rounding of all infants and confirming discharge.
Beebe Women's Health team members consider ongoing education a priority. In partnership with the Margaret H. Rollins School of Nursing at Beebe Healthcare, our nurses and team members are trained regularly on infant simulators. These simulations allow team members to practice in crucial situations of infant distress, so they are ready to act if a similar situation arises at the medical center.
In addition, all of the NNPs at Beebe are board certified by National Certification Corporation. We renew our certification every three years. The team regularly attends workshops, meetings, and conferences to learn what is being done at other organizations and what evidence-based practices are working for other teams throughout the nation.
Beebe Women's Health is a model for efficiency and innovation in the state; it recently received the Innovative Model Award at the National Perinatal Association annual conference in Loma Linda, Calif. The team presented on the Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome program, which has shown great success in keeping mothers and babies together when babies are born exposed to opioids. Beebe has been able to reduce the healthcare costs of babies born exposed and also has been able to shorten the length of stay for these infants, who sometimes require twice the amount of time in the hospital after birth when compared to healthy infants.
Beebe aims to continue to advance the Women's Health program with its plans for the next generation, which include a four-story patient wing to be called the Margaret H. Rollins Pavilion. This new addition to the medical center in Lewes will include a dedicated second floor for labor and delivery where families can bring infants into the world in a state-of-the-art birthing center atmosphere. For more about expansion plans, go to www.nextgenerationofcare.org and sign up for the Blueprint eNewsletter.
Nancy Forsyth, MSN, RN, NNP-BC, is a neonatal nurse practitioner with Beebe's Women's and Children's Services. For more information, go to www.beebehealthcare.org/womens-health. For health and wellness tips specifically for women, go to www.beebehealthcare.org/be-there.
