Happy Anniversary NICU!

This year, my unit turned 35 years old. Here are a few things about my unit and my job (taken from the MU Health website):

Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Columbia Regional

-The 36-bed Neonatal Intensive Care Unittreats premature babies and other critically ill infants. Children's Hospital provides the full range of Level III neonatal care. Staff members include specially trained nurses, physicians, respiratory care, practitioners, advanced practice nurses, social workers and pharmacists. Services include high-frequency jet ventilation, nitric oxide therapy, surfactant therapy and percutaneous central venous line placement.

-The NICU was established on July 1, 1971, under the guidance of neonatalogist Elizabeth James, MD. Today, Dr. James serves as the medical director for the unit and works with four other neonatalogists in caring for the NICU's tiny patients using a multidisciplinary team approach.

-The NICU moved to its new state-of-the-art facilities at Columbia Regional Hospital in November 2003.

-The NICU admits 450 to 500 patients each year. The unit cares for small, premature babies with complicated medical problems.

-The University has the area's only pediatric surgeon and the NICU is capable of caring for infants with complicated surgical problems as well, such as birth defects like gastroschisis and surgical emergencies, such as bowel rupture due to NEC . Often, surgery is done right in the infant's room, as they are usually too ill to be transported to the OR.

-The smallest patient admitted to the NICU was a 22 4/7 week male infant. At birth, he weighed approximately 15 3/4 ounces. He just celebrated his fifth birthday. (This info is old - I believe he's 11 or 12 by now)

-Each year, the neonatal transport team transports approximately 350 babies from other health-care facilities to Children's Hospital's NICU. The transport team consists of specially trained nurses and respiratory care practitioners. The service transports babies who weigh less than 15 pounds. (This info is also old - we now transport non-trauma pediatric patients up to 16 years old. University Hopsital has a pediatric unit and a pediatric intensive care unit)

-The NICU holds a reunion each year for former NICU patients and their parents.

- Here is an older, but still interesting list of "NICU All-Stars". (I did not take care of any of these kids - they were are patients of ours before I started working there.)