From a nurse's perspective...

[EllieBC]

39. I am not a nurse, but my oldest child would not be alive without nurses.

She spent 4 months in the NICU and while the chief pediatrician and neonatologist would make their morning rounds, they only spent 5 minutes at each incubator. The RNs on the other hand, were with my daughter for 12 hour shifts. They responded to every alarm (which were many many in that first month - like once every 5 minutes), they knew exactly what position would most likely make her desat. They knew literally everything.

The doctors are highly intelligent but they aren't *with* the patients. They don't have as much hands on. They know that their book says XYZ should work 75% of the time. But the nurses? They knew that XYZ with maybe a little ABC and some extra DEF on this particular patient would work 90% of the time.

Without those neonatal nurses, my daughter would probably not have made it or have been given up on. Instead now I have a healthy, happy 9 year old daughter who is amazing. And that credit goes to her nurses.

ETA: The nurses were also there for me and my husband as well. I cannot think of how many times they broke things down into terms we could grasp, wiped away tears, offered me a coffee or tea, or just listened to us as we wept and worried.