As with any medical specialty, procedures for neonatal nurse practitioners (NNPs) evolve constantly. This ensures NNPs continue to provide the best care for neonates by leveraging new evidence-based practices as they emerge. While it’s still important to stay up-to-date with procedural updates in your NICU, here are a few recent [...]
Graduating from the NICU is an exciting milestone for parents, but it’s also one that can come with concerns and uncertainties. Babies that have been in the NICU face a higher risk for medical and developmental issues, and parents understandably want to ensure their babies’ needs are met even after [...]
Babies being discharged from the NICU face higher risks for medical and developmental issues than their peers. For this reason, it’s critical for providers to establish and enforce follow-up protocols that meet each baby’s specific care needs. To prepare parents of neonates to take their babies home after being discharged [...]
The Nursing Licensure Compact (NLC) is an agreement among certain states which allows nurses to practice in all member states by holding a single compact state nursing license. The states involved in the agreement are known as compact nursing states. Historically, licensure for healthcare professionals has been required in multiple [...]
The scope of practice for neonatal nurse practitioners (NNPs) varies widely from one state to the next. For locum tenens NNPs, holding a multi-state license may allow them to find work outside their primary state of residence (although applying to be an advanced practice registered nurse in member states is [...]
One of the great perks of working as a NNP is being able to travel to new locations and work in long or short-term (locum tenens) assignments. You do not have to be tied down to one location or another, and this is where the nurse compact comes in handy! [...]
NNPs function differently from most other nurse practitioners due to the environment within which we work. We don’t have office hours, we work shifts similar to our nursing colleagues in the NICU. Whether you work 8, 10, 12, 16, or 24 hour shifts, time is always moving forward and requiring [...]
In the job arena changes are, for the most part, always evolving. While some employees handle the changes well and in a positive manner, other employees find it most difficult. Even when working with the tiniest of patients in a neonatal unit, a new manager will often bring changes that [...]
Great news! No matter the reason for your decision, the current/ongoing NNP shortage ensures the need for your skills as an experienced NNP. It is both a blessing and a burden for travel NNPs to be able to pop into a new place, pick up the reins, and get to [...]
Aspirating and monitoring gastric residuals from gavage feeds in preterm newborns is common practice in the NICU. The aim of this practice is to guide the advancement of gavage feeds to enteral feeds. However, even today, we still cannot say with certainty whether or not this practice improves neonatal outcomes. [...]
