Neonatology Case Studies

Ever since I was about 10, I was extremely interested in becoming a neonatal nurse practitioner. I love babies and love helping others so I figured this particular job could be perfect for me. A neonatal nurse practitioner means you provide care for newborns in need of specialized attention for about the first month of their life. These newborns are usually premature or very sick and the nurse practitioners are usually their primary caregiver. NNP’s are responsible for their patients, exercising judgment when necessary to assess, diagnose, and initiate medical procedures. Many tasks include monitoring specialized equipment, including incubators and ventilators. Providing education and support to patients’ families regarding neonatal, intensive

Because people with sickle cell trait don't have the disease, they may never discover that they carry the gene. That's why it's recommended that teens who are unsure of their sickle cell status ask their doctors about testing. The National Institutes of Health recommends that all newborns be screened for sickle cell disease, and testing at birth is now required in almost every state. This helps infants with sickle cell anemia get the care and treatment they need right away.

Ever wonder who the magical people are behind all the miracles that happen on babies? Well those magical people are doctors, specifically neonatal surgeons. A neonatal surgeon is a medical doctor who works on newborn/infant babies that are either premature, have a certain condition that needs to be treated, or just ill overall. It is a subspecialization of being a pediatric surgeon. What makes a neonatal surgeon different from a general pediatric surgeon is that a neonatal surgeon has advanced knowledge on how to operate on a baby without making their condition even worse. Neonatal surgeons usually perform operations on babies who are born with chest, abdominal

Cystic Fibrosis is a life threatening condition that causes severe damage to the lungs and digestive system. Developing this condition can change a person's entire life. Depending on the severity of the condition a person can be affected by mild symptoms such as shortness of breath, all the way to severe symptoms such as rectal prolapse, or even death. Screening is done on infants in all 50 states; therefore if a child has inherited Cystic Fibrosis it will be known in the first months of life. As professional staff members of a nursing community it will be necessary to help prepare the child and the family for the life of Cystic Fibrosis.

Due to the loss of muscle mass, protein adequacy is also a problem in older adults because it is not advised to increase protein intake. Limited protein intake may result in vitamin A, C, D, calcium, iron, zinc, and other deficiencies (Grodner, 2012). Overall, Theresa’s small nutrient intake can result in many nutrient deficiencies.

Brittany is a 22yo, G2 P1001, who was seen for an ultrasound evaluation and FTS. The patient states that she has a history of hypothyroidism but believes that she was tested in this pregnancy and told that her values were normal. I do not have copies of that lab work but would recommend that this be followed as her pregnancy progresses. She also reportedly has some issues with anxiety and IBS but is stable not on medication. She has a previous cesarean delivery with her last delivery but is uncertain about a VBAC. Lastly, she states that her main issue in this pregnancy is that when she wakes up in the morning after sleeping her arms and hands are numb or asleep and this did not occur in her previous pregnancy.

The nurse will be responsible for scheduling, and making sure that all requirement are fulfill. According to the Johns Hopkins Cystic Fibrosis Center, “A salty kiss on a baby’s skin used to be a parent’s first clue to the diagnosis of CF. Today the sweat test is still the gold standard for diagnosing CF; but a new array of tests, from genetic mutation analysis of the CF gene to chest and sinus CT scans to infant pulmonary function tests have been added to the diagnostic arsenal. Today, physicians can detect CF not only in newborns but in the developing fetus as

As a subspecialty of the field of pediatrics, neonatology concentrates on the care of newborns, especially premature infants, those presenting with illness, injury, or disease at birth, and newborns with developmental challenges or deformities. Neonatologists practice primarily in a hospital setting, most often in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit).

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a destructive abnormality in red blood cells that results in circulatory impairment. Sickle cell disease can cause pain, infection, organ damage and strokes. SCD is inherited through the infants’ parental genes (James, 2014). For instance, if an infant inherits the gene from one parent that infant will automatically have the sickle cell trait. As a result, the infant will be a carrier of the disease but won’t actually have the SCD. It is very rare for a carrier to have any symptoms. Women who have SCD are considered high risk if they become pregnant. SCD poses complication for both mother and fetus during

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is calamitous defect of the red blood cells (RBC’s) resulting in an impairment if he circulatory system, damaging tissue, causing dangerous anemia, deadly infections, and infarctions (Redshaw, & Martin, 2013). SCD patients live two to three decades less than their healthy peers, affecting up to one-hundred-thousand American’s, with the vast majority of African descent, and a small fraction of Hispanic, Asian Indian, Middle Eastern and Southern European (Redshaw, & Martin, 2013). More than 90% of children diagnosed with SCD in The United States, will reach adulthood; consequently, the majority of SCD diagnosis occur during mandatory routine newborn health screenings (Redshaw, & Martin, 2013).

This disease is a genetic disease and it is hereditary. It is inherited as an autosomal recessive disease. This means that in order to get the gene you must receive a recessive trait from your mother and your father. The parents could both be heterozygous for the trait and therefore not have the disease, but instead they would both be a carrier. There are only a few ways that the parents could possibly pass the trait. One possibility of having a child with sickle-cell disease is if both parents are heterozygous and they both pass on their recessive allele, (25% chance for offspring to have sickle-cell disease). Another possibility

This was well before the introduction of haemoglobin electrophoresis, the test currently used to diagnose the disease, but there is widely accepted that the patient suffered from SCD. There were a couple more cases of SCD after that. Babies with sickle cell disease (SCD) should be referred to a doctor or provider group that has experience taking care of people with this disease. The doctor might be a hematologist(a doctor with special training in blood diseases) or an experienced general pediatrician, internist, or family

Respiratory distress is common, affecting up to 70% of all premature newborns, and is increasingly common in even modest prematurity. Preventive and therapeutic measures for some of the most common underlying causes are well studied and when implemented can reduce the burden of disease. Failure to readily recognize symptoms and treat the underlying cause of respiratory distress in the newborn can lead to short- and long-term complications, including chronic lung disease, respiratory failure, and even death.

When premature babies are born they do not have fully developed lungs because the lungs are one of the last organs in the body to be produced. The alveoli in the baby’s lungs have not yet started making surfactant, which is typically produced when the baby is 34-36 weeks’ gestation. When the alveoli do not have surfactant, the alveoli want to naturally collapse. Surfactant helps to keep the alveoli open and create more surface area for gas exchange. If you were to look at the infant’s lungs using a microscope, you can see that lungs look as though they are solid from the areas where the alveoli have collapsed, also known as atelectasis. To try to compensate for the atelectasis, “the respiratory bronchioles, alveolar ducts, and some of the alveoli dilate to decrease airway resistance and increase gas exchange” (Jardins 476). As the disease worsens, the walls of the alveoli become lined with a hyaline membrane that is made up of dead cells and proteins that make it nearly impossible for gas exchange to occur. It makes the lungs stiff and much harder to ventilate. With the lungs being noncompliant, the baby starts to become hypoxic. When the infant becomes hypoxic, blood is shunted away from the other organs in the body and venous return and cardiac output are decreased. “Hypoxemia is common in pulmonary hypertension (PH) and may be partly related to ventilation/perfusion mismatch, low diffusion

If a couple wants to have any children there are several services that a genetic counseling can provide. They can be tested if they are a carrier for the gene. If they do decide to have a child they can test the baby before its even born to know if it has sickle cell. They will be asked a detailed family history that includes three generations back. The health history of each family member including reproductive history will be asked. They will also look at the growth and development and the understanding