Week 2: Let’s Get Personal
Zoey B -
This week, I mainly worked on preparing and scheduling interviews with families that have had a premature baby and with people that have been premature. I had three interviews this past week. One interview was with a person that had been born premature in the 1960’s. The other two were with mothers that had a premature child. These interviews have given me more insight into the technologies being used currently and how different the treatments were in the 1960’s compared to the early 2000’s. By interviewing families, I am able to hear real life stories about the technologies I am researching. I can compare what I am seeing in the N.I.C.U. during my internship to the stories I am learning from families. I also am able to compare the level 2 N.I.C.U. that we have here to some of the larger N.I.C.U.s that these families were at.
Since I am also looking into how technologies in the N.I.C.U. affect the mental health of premature babies, I am mainly gathering my information from questions that I ask family members about this subject. Since it is hard to research this newer topic because of the limited amount of studies available, I am relying on my interview questions and the answers I receive from families to answer this part of my research.
At my internship, I was able to observe feedings on a preemie that is around three weeks old, as well as a feeding on a preemie baby that was less than 24 hours old. The baby that is three weeks old is going to be released from the hospital tomorrow and before he can be released an echo exam must be done on his heart. I was able to watch the technician preform the exam on him and help gather the supplies that the nurses give to the parents when a baby goes home on oxygen. The baby that was just born was on an I.V. drip that contained sugar because his blood sugar was very low in the first few hours of his life. He also needed a heel exam, which is when the nurse pricks his heel instead of drawing his blood through a vein. The heel exam was used to test for multiple things, including his blood sugar levels, with the hopes of lowering the amount of sugar he needed to be given.
In my own research, I looked into the history of ventilators and how they have evolved over time. I researched what improvements they have made and when they are used in hospitals today versus in the past. With technological advancements, ventilators have only improved in how they operate, and how they are able to sense a patient’s needs and adjust the pressure if a spontaneous breath does occur. I will not get the opportunity to see these being used in real life because in the level 2 N.I.C.U., the babies do not receive ventilation. If a a baby does need ventilation, they are sent down to Phoenix. Most babies that need ventilation are born earlier than 32 weeks and because the N.I.C.U. in Prescott Valley only take babies that are born 34 weeks and older, ventilation is not a commonly seen issue that arises.
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