M.Sc. in Neonatal Intensive Care Nursing

Introduction

In neonatal intensive care units, the doctors and nurses and health care professionals in general are responsible for maintaining and improving the health of infants and their families not just treating their diseases. Therefore, health professionals, especially nurses who spend most of their time in the neonatal intensive care units, should not only make an effort to improve their knowledge and skills, but pay attention to all aspects of the patients’ health and wellbeing including mental and social health and

Definition

Neonatal intensive care nurse is a knowledgeable and skillful professional who, as an active member of multidisciplinary team, is responsible for the delivery of high quality holistic care to premature/ critically ill infants. Neonatal intensive care nurse uses his/her knowledge and skills to; prevent premature birth complications, promote health, support infants and their families, help rehabilitation process and provide safe and comfortable environment for infants who need intensive care. NICU nurses offer automated and cooperative infant management in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and take charge of care delivery for infants under their care. Providing health care requires experience in; clinical assessment, study of prenatal history of each infant, laboratory results and coordination of diagnosis and treatment interventions. NICU nurses maintain and improve their skills and knowledge by continues education (theory and practical) and research in the field of neonatal intensive care units. They are also able to educate and support families of infants at risk in an emergency and normal situation.

The Aim of the Course

Values 

The graduates of this program, with compliance to; ethical and Islamic values, human’s dignity, professionalism, professional commitment, teamwork, innovation and justice as well as respecting; colleagues, patients and families, strive to provide high quality standard care for infants and families. In this regard following values are required from students of this program:

• Respecting; justice, and Islamic, social. Ethical values
• Respecting human’s dignity
• Considering social justice
• Respecting colleagues
• Accountability
• Team working
• Respecting infants and their families’ right
• Providing holistic care
• Providing family-centered care
• Society-centered
• Compliance in quality control

Mission

Mission of the program include; reducing the mortality and complications of infants in neonatal critical care units, improving nursing care and structure, and training qualified professionals with required skills and knowledge. The advances in the neonatal medicine have increased the survival rate of critically ill and premature infants that need specialized care. Due to the needs of these infants to specialized care and interventions, developing and expanding modern critical care units is a necessity in the world as well as Iran. Nursing education to bachelor’s degree level, does not respond to the needs in this area, and nurses usually gain required knowledge and skills after many years of work in the neonatal critical care units. Therefore, there has been increasing demands for specialized staff that are capable to deliver specialized care in these settings. Theses nurses have an important role in the integration of neonatal courses and perinatology. These nurses, in accordance with the program’s values, are responsible for; the care of critically ill infants at third level of care, and conducting practical clinical research. In the future, when there are enough qualified staffs in this area, graduates of this program can deliver care at second level of care.

Vision

It is expected to achieve following goals in 10 years' time, by expanding neonatal critical care units and training qualified staffs;

1. Enhance skills and knowledge of neonatal critical care nursing staffs to a acceptable level nationally based on global standards
2. Improve neonatal critical care nursing care through the use of family-centered education and research
3. Allocate more responsibility to nurses in the care of neonatal infants in order to improve health index and reduce mortality of infants in the country

Aims

The main aim of the program is to train and educate nurses who have required knowledge, vision and ability in the care of critically-ill infants, as well as abilities including; professional behavior, communication skills, information technology, continuous self-learning, research, management, promote quality control, problem solving, and commendation, etc. These abilities are as follow;

1. Nursing knowledge
2. Promote perspective and required performance in the care of critically ill and premature infant
3. Promote; communication skills and appropriate inter-personal and team communication of graduates
4. promote vision and skills of professional behavior
5. Promote knowledge, vision and skills required for practical research
6. Promote knowledge, abilities, vision and information technology (IT, ICT) and documentation
7. Promote knowledge, skills and vision in management, planning and continuous quality improvement of care and training related to critically ill and premature infants
8. Promote life-long learning by improving self-assessment and evaluation skills
9. Promote critical analysis and problem solving in emergency situations