There is a big push within health care these days toward patient- and family-centered rounds. What exactly is that? NICU rounds are when your baby’s medical team comes each day, typically in the morning, to discuss what has been going on and make a plan for the day. The “patient- and family-centered” part is where you come in! Many hospitals see the parents as a vital part of the child’s healthcare team. You are the people who know your little one best. You have that “mommy instinct” that you may not be able to explain, but you know what your gut is telling you. It’s encouraging that healthcare is seeing the family as a key link in the overall care of the child.
How can you make the most of NICU rounds to both get information and provide input?
These 5 things may help you out in NICU Rounds!
Ask Questions
- Ask for an explanation when you don’t understand something. Medical-speak is like a whole different language. Even if you have some medical background, the NICU seems to have its very own dialect. There are so many abbreviations and acronyms that will be unfamiliar at first. Over time, you’ll learn the “NICU language,” but don’t ever hesitate to ask questions during rounds.
Share Your Observations
- In line with family-centered rounds, don’t be afraid to speak up with your observations. You are the one who knows your baby the very best. You may have primary nurses who care for your baby a lot, but you are likely still there more than anyone and have learned to read your baby’s cues and signals. I learned early in our NICU journey that Jacob needed changes in his meds, oxygen, nitric, etc. to be slow and in small increments. He just didn’t tolerate big or quick changes. Share your insights and thoughts with your baby’s care team. You are a valuable source of information for them.
Write Things Down
- Write things down. I kept journals of Jacob’s entire NICU stay. In them, I noted his doctors and nurses each day, milestones, my questions, and the information reported at morning rounds. In high-stress situations, we tend to have decreased ability to retain information (at least that was true for me!). Even if you think you’ll remember something a member of the care team says, write it down. Not only will it help you in your day-to-day journey in the NICU but you will also have it to look back on down the road. Jacob is in elementary school now, and it’s only been within the last couple of years that I felt emotionally able to go back and look through those tough days and recall what was going on. If you’re a scrapbooker, this is especially nice. 🙂
Utilize the Nurses
- Rely on your child’s nurses. This one is pretty easy to do since you probably spend a lot of time with the nurses. Having someone else there for rounds that you can talk with afterward is nice for any additional questions, explanations, etc. I only missed two days of rounds during Jacob’s 126-day NICU stay, but on those days, his nurses were prepared to share all the info with me that they knew I’d be writing down in my journals.
Get to Know the Team
- Get to know all the members of the care team that participate in rounds. We were in a NICU at a large teaching hospital, so morning rounds included a crowd of people: the neonatologist, the neonatology fellow, a resident or two, a couple medical students, Jacob’s nurse, sometimes the charge nurse, the dietician, a respiratory therapist, a pharmacist, and sometimes a physical therapist, music therapist, occupational therapist, or child life specialist. Over our NICU stay, we got to know all of these people, and they became additional sources of information for us. And many remain our friends today!
So while NICU rounds can be intimidating and overwhelming, there are ways that you can participate and make a very real contribution in the care of your precious little one.