Jennifer Degl, author of From Hope to Joy: A Memoir of a Mother's Determination and Her Micro Preemie's Struggle to Beat the Odds and champion of the Newborn Health Initiative shares her experiences as a Keynote Speaker at the 32nd Annual NANN Conference last week in Palm Springs.
"[NICU nurses] are not only concerned with saving and caring for our premature and medically fragile babies, but they also want to make sure that we all leave the NICU with as little bruises as possible," Ms. Degl writes. "There is no way to leave the NICU unscathed by our experiences after watching our babies (and often ourselves) endure so much pain and suffering, but I learned that the NICU nurses are always looking for newer and better methods to minimize it for us all."
"[NICU nurses] are not only concerned with saving and caring for our premature and medically fragile babies, but they also want to make sure that we all leave the NICU with as little bruises as possible," Ms. Degl writes. "There is no way to leave the NICU unscathed by our experiences after watching our babies (and often ourselves) endure so much pain and suffering, but I learned that the NICU nurses are always looking for newer and better methods to minimize it for us all."
NANN Conference 2016
Last weekend I had the honor and pleasure of being a Keynote Speaker at the 32nd Annual NANN Conference.NANN stands for the National Association of Neonatal Nurses.
The conference was held in Palm Springs, California at the Renaissance Palm Springs and the weather was beautiful. But what was more beautiful were the NICU nurses I got to meet and spend time with.
For those of you who don’t know what NICU means- it’s the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. This is where my daughter, as well remainder of the 10% of babies born prematurely every year, spend their first few weeks or months of life.
Before I discuss what I was speaking to them about, I want to explain what special people these NICU nurses are. These women (and some men, too!) not only help the neonatologists resuscitate our babies and keep them alive immediately after their premature births, but they do so much more.
According to study.com, the duties of a NICU nurse include administering medications, monitoring vital signs and providing vital nutrients to newborns. Because most premature and sick newborns’ lungs are not fully developed, NICU nurses must ensure that infants are breathing and maturing properly. These specialized nurses work with upper-level nurses and neonatologists and assist in treatment plans and examinations. They also keep, maintain and update records of the patient’s care. In addition to medical care, NICU nurses communicate with and educate parents on day-to-day operations as well as home-care procedures.
I can tell you that description only scratches the surface of what NICU nurses actually do for babies and their parents.
These angels on earth, as I like to call them, will hold our babies if we cannot be there; they will comfort them when they cry; they will sing to our babies to put them to sleep; as well as bath them and change their diapers- tasks that we wish we were doing ourselves, but are all too often not able to do because of our baby’s fragile (and often our own) medical conditions.
Most NICU nurses go above and beyond to make sure our babies are safe, happy and thriving. And NICU nurses often become our baby’s advocates when necessary- as far as the medical plan goes.
This is why it was an honor and privilege to be a Keynote Speaker at their conference.
Four years ago, after delivering my own premature baby at 23 weeks gestation, I was thrown into an unknown world of neonatal care. The NICU nurses soon became my teachers, friends and family.
Our “Parent Panel” consisted of me, Natalie Gordon of NICU Helping Hands and Kara Wahlin of NICU Healing.
We were tasked with sharing our own personal NICU experience and then offering advice on how the NICU nurses could make the discharge process emotionally easier on parents and how nurses can best help the parents prepare for discharge.
Both Natalie and Kara have their own journeys with prematurity and you can visit their websites (linked to their names above the photo) to read about them. They are two of the most beautiful women I know and I am lucky to have shared this experience with them. I’m in awe by their strength and determination!
Our Keynote Closing Session began with the President of NANN (Jean Grazel) discussing the importance of the parents in the NICU process. Jean Grazel is a certified advanced practice nurse with more than 30 years of neonatal nursing experience. She holds several clinical designations, including board-certified high-risk perinatal nurse, neonatal resuscitation program regional trainer, NANN neonatal developmental care specialist, and certified breastfeeding counselor. You can read all about Jean by clicking HERE. Then Heather Goodall (MSN, RNC-NIC, IBCLC) set the stage for our presentation and read each of our biographies to the audience. Heather also moderated the question and answer session at the end of our presentations. You can see the general outline for our presentations by clicking HERE.
What touched me the most was that all of these NICU nurses put aside time in their day and made it a priority to come to watch us speak- the parents of NICU babies. We (the parents) owe everything to these people and have the upmost respect for them- and yet they wanted to listen to us speak and offer them advice on how to help us more.
You can read all about the 2016 NANN Conference and the many other topics they tackled, training sessions they offered, and those who spoke by clicking HERE.Overall, my experience as a Keynote Speaker at the 32nd Annual NANN Conference was both amazing and humbling. I got to share the stage with two other beautiful and strong NICU mammas, and I got to see first- hand how these NICU nurses really want help the family as a whole. They are not only concerned with saving and caring for our premature and medically fragile babies, but they also want to make sure that we all leave the NICU with as little bruises as possible.
There is no way to leave the NICU unscathed by our experiences after watching our babies (and often ourselves) endure so much pain and suffering, but I learned that the NICU nurses are always looking for newer and better methods to minimize it for us all.
Once again, NICU nurses are angels on earth!
Oh, and since I was in Palm Springs for the weekend, of course I took in some of the local sites! What kind of science teacher would I be if I didn’t visit the San Andreas Fault, Joshua Tree National Park and the mountains of San Jacinto State Park?
It’s a rhetorical question. Lol!
But seriously, if you have a story to share about a NICU nurse going above and beyond to make sure you have the best NICU experience and discharge possible, I would love to hear it. I have SO many!
Please share in the comments
