Treat them like babies: Hospital employees get training in care of premature children

Michelle Swafford

Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2004 | 10:57 a.m.

Some of St. Rose Dominican Hospitals nurses and administrators learned firsthand Monday what it is like to be a premature baby in a hospital.

About 60 nurses and administrators agreed to take care of hospital employees who posed as premature babies for a day at St. Rose Dominican Hospitals -- Siena Campus. Norwell, Mass.-based Children's Medical Ventures provided the training for the event, which is believed to be the first such event in the Las Vegas Valley.

Premature babies are not as fully developed and require a different type of care than full-term babies, said Joanne Minnaert, education coordinator with Children's Medical Ventures.

For example, premature babies need to be positioned in ways that are similar to how they would be in the womb versus being sprawled out on a flat mattress.

"You have to take extra precautions," she said. "They're coming out from this wonderfully warm and comforting environment inside the mother into this stark, sterile, noisy delivery room and it's startling. Nursing can do it better and that's what the program shows."

The volunteers who posed as babies were subjected to bright lights, loud noise, cold instruments and liquids on their skin and awkward positions that are common in a delivery room and nursery, but are not the best environment for premature babies.

"Developmental care is very important to the long-term outcomes of these children," Minnaert said.

Sharon Moritz, nurse manager of the level-two nursery at St. Rose Dominican Hospitals -- Siena Campus, said the program would help her colleagues understand what it feels like to be a premature infant.

For example, many people do not realize that premature babies' nerves can be aggravated by touches that adults would find soothing.

"We want to just take the best care that we can of our tiny patients," Moritz said.