text: Neonatal intensive care nurses monitor and maintain the health of critically ill babies who are sent to neonatal intensive care units that are devoted to their care.\n\n\n\nSome babies are born prematurely (under 37 weeks gestation) and they need assistance because various systems and organs are not yet fully developed. Full term babies born with health problems, such as birth defects or infections, may be in the unit because they need special treatment, observation or surgery.\n\nOnce babies are admitted to the NICU, either directly from the delivery room, the newborn nursery, or from another hospital's NICU or nursery, working as part of a specialist team, neonatal intensive care nurses begin the constant monitoring of their young patients. \n\n\n\nWelcome To The NICU \n\nNIC nurses are trained in assessment. They monitor vital signs such as respiration, heart rate and temperature. This information assists the neonatalogist in planning treatment for the baby. \n\nDuring a baby's stay in a NICU, physical examinations and assessments of their condition are regularly carried out by the nurses. To help evaluate a baby's condition, blood, urine tests and x-rays may be arranged and conducted. Weighing and measuring the babies also enables the nurses to keep a check on their progress.\n\n\n\nBabies are monitored from their special beds or incubators, which are used to help keep their body temperature stable. Some may be wrapped in bubble plastic or glad wrap to help keep them warm.\n\nOn The Hour, Every Hour\n\n''NIC nurses do hourly observations, checking the baby's temperature, heart rate, pulse and blood pressure. If the baby is on a ventilator, then the nurse would also maintain the pressure and rate of the ventilator. All of this information, including every abnormality, is recorded,'' says a local neonatal nurse.\n\n\n\n\n\nNIC nurses are taught to be super diligent, they work according to a system and 'cutting corners' is something they simply cannot afford to do. \n\nNIC nurses work under the direction of neonatologists (pediatricians with additional training in newborn intensive care) and they also work closely alongside other NIC nurses, so teamwork is clearly critical in this profession. \n\nAll babies, especially very sick babies, need to be in contact with their parents. NIC nurses encourage a high level of contact between parents and their baby, while the baby is in intensive care. Parents also need to be kept fully informed about their baby's condition. \n\n\n\nNurses need to have very good people and communication skills, and to be supportive of parents with whom they spend a lot of time. It's very much the nurse's responsibility to teach parents how to care for their babies and to look for the signs that indicate something maybe wrong.\n\nVarious sources indicate that much of the pleasure of the job comes from it's very hands on nature, and the satisfaction that comes from getting to know babies and parents, who stay sometimes for a fairly long period of time. But, they also suggest that you need to be able to work in a team, cope with sometimes stressful situations and those irregular hours. \n\nThe development and dissemination of neonatal intensive care technology has been associated with improved survival rates for critically ill, newborn infants, some of whom are born many weeks ahead of their expected birth date.\n\n\n\nIndustry representatives and employment forecasters suggest that employment prospects are good for nurses in general. In Western Australia, there is a strong demand for the skills of NIC nurses but the workforce is still very small. \n\nAfter training, the intensive care nurse can expect to earn about $41,000 per year, which can go as high as $102,000 for a director of nursing.