When a baby enters the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) or special care nursery (SCN), staff need to communicate effectively with families and carers to gather key information, conduct orientation and ensure they are supported and included at each stage.
Click on the stages below to navigate through the neonatal journey.
Pre-admission – orientation to the unit, gathering of patient/family history, first 24 hours
Admission – communication that occurs before admission or transfer to a neonatal service
In the unit – care provided in neonatal units (NICU and SCN)
Transition – transfer/transition to another level of care, hospital in the home service or directly home (self managed with referral support)
Handover – a structured clinical handover is vital between each stage of this journey within neonatal services and outside
“She had really great care when we were working together. When I felt the care wasn’t great, it was at times the teams weren’t working well with me or keeping me included.”