Neonatal Intensive Care Nursing (NICU)

Program Description:

In neonatal intensive care units, the doctors and nurses and health care professionals in general are responsible for maintaining and improving the health of infants and their families not just treating their diseases. Therefore, health professionals, especially nurses who spend most of their time in the neonatal intensive care units, should not only make an effort to improve their knowledge and skills, but pay attention to all aspects of the patients’ health and wellbeing including mental and social .

Definition

Neonatal intensive care nurse is a knowledgeable and skillful professional who, as an active member of multidisciplinary team, is responsible for the delivery of high quality holistic care to premature/ critically ill infants. Neonatal intensive care nurse uses his/her knowledge and skills to; prevent premature birth complications, promote health, support infants and their families, help rehabilitation process and provide safe and comfortable environment for infants who need intensive care. NICU nurses offer automated and cooperative infant management in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and take charge of care delivery for infants under their care. Providing health care requires experience in; clinical assessment, study of prenatal history of each infant, laboratory results and coordination of diagnosis and treatment interventions. NICU nurses maintain and improve their skills and knowledge by continues education (theory and practical) and research in the field of neonatal intensive care units. They are also able to educate and support families of infants at risk in an emergency and normal situation.

Objectives:

The main aim of the program is to train and educate nurses who have required knowledge, vision and ability in the care of critically-ill infants, as well as abilities including; professional behavior, communication skills, information technology, continuous self-learning, research, management, promote quality control, problem solving, and commendation, etc. These abilities are as follow;

1. Nursing knowledge
2. Promote perspective and required performance in the care of critically ill and premature infant
3. Promote; communication skills and appropriate inter-personal and team communication of graduates
4. promote vision and skills of professional behavior
5. Promote knowledge, vision and skills required for practical research
6. Promote knowledge, abilities, vision and information technology (IT, ICT) and documentation
7. Promote knowledge, skills and vision in management, planning and continuous quality improvement of care and training related to critically ill and premature infants
8. Promote life-long learning by improving self-assessment and evaluation skills
9. Promote critical analysis and problem solving in emergency situations

General competencies

Communication skills, interviewing, reporting, critical thinking, professionalism as well as

• Concepts and theories in nursing
• Evidence-based practice
• Research methodology in nursing
• Statistics for nursing research

Specific Competencies and Skills (Special Qualifications)

• To deliver skilled and evidenced-based nursing care and intervention for patients who need intensive care.
• To assess patients non-invasively and help invasive assessment of patients in neonatal intensive care units
• To interpret and analyze clinical data
• Acquiring qualifications for conducting applied researches and employing the findings to solve nursing problems in the care of patients.