ASCENSION HEALTH
Clinicians from two Tennessee hospitals got a taste of what it's like to be a newborn in the hospital, when they participated in an exercise called "Preemie for a Day."
Offered as part of a four-hour training course, the simulation replicated the startling experience of a newborn moving from the warm and quiet environment of the womb into the stressful hubbub of a neonatal intensive care unit. Some of the clinicians participating from Nashville's Baptist Hospital and Murfreesboro's Middle Tennessee Medical Center played the part of the newborns, and others, the caregivers.
The caregivers took vital signs, and administered mock treatments and bottle-feedings.
More than 100 nurses, physicians, patient care technicians and others took part in the February session, which also included training on positioning and handling techniques for infants.
Nurse Ellen Gregory, manager of the Beaman Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Baptist Hospital, said the training reinforces the importance of maintaining a calm, quiet and comfortable environment for sick newborns.
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