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A Part Of The Requirement For The Overseas Nurses Program

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I am writing this essay as a part of the requirement for the Overseas Nurses Programme. I would be reflecting on three learning objectives, which are: providing developmental care for neonates to promote sleep and neurodevelopment, nasal care for neonates on nasal CPAP, and providing therapeutic hypothermia or cooling for newborns suffering from hypoxic brain insult. In my previous experience, I was used to the practice of holding neonates anytime I wanted. It was accepted to disturb their sleep in order to provide cares and do procedures. Minimal handling was only implemented for extremely premature babies. When I was exposed to the neonatal unit here in the UK, I was surprised that the practice was very different. Minimal handling is implemented on all babies, nesting is done, the room is kept quiet and the lights are dimmed to ensure that the neonates are not disturbed and are getting enough sleep. I felt uneasy not being able to touch the babies as much. It made me feel that I was not being an efficient carer. So, I kept on checking the baby that I was handling and was told by my mentor to leave the baby alone and allow him to sleep. I did not understand why the practice was different. I asked my mentor about it and she told me about developmental care. That was the first time I heard about developmental care. This led me to reading about it and wanting to learn how it affects the neonates. According to Bertelle et. al. (2005), sleep is the main behaviour of premature

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