Neonatal Intensive Care

In Malaysia several thousand nurses graduate from various nursing institutions every year. These newly graduated nurses’ work throughout the country to fulfil the require¬ments of care for patients in various general and specialised areas, including NICU without any neonatal post-basic course training. NICU is a highly specialised environment however, requiring nurses with additional ex¬pertise in neonatal nursing care, and in my own experience, the NICU environment is unique and differs from general nursing units. In Malaysia, therefore, these new graduates are expected to adapt and cope with working in a specialised area without additional education and under extremes of poor staffing and minimal resources. It is not surprising that retention of staff tends to be an on-going continuing problem in NICU. NICU provided opportunities to learn about neonatal conditions and the technologies used to treat neonates. The staff nurses in this study gained lots of experiences while working in the NICU, including knowledge and skills in nursing critically ill patients, some of whom had unusual medical conditions. Learning experiences became more complex as the staff nurses also had to learn the new technologies used in the NICU. After they had worked in the NICU for a year or more, they were given opportunities to further their education by attending post-basic courses such as neonatal nursing and midwifery.

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Last date updated on September, 2024