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Care Opinion

Neonatal care

Posted By Mazzamac

"Neonatal care"

About: Craigavon Area Hospital / Maternity care

(as a service user),

My baby was taken to the NICU a day after she was born in May. Understandably I was upset and when I first visited her there I rang my own mother for support. I was told off by the nurse as I shouldn’t be on my phone despite being in obvious distress about the baby being in the NICU. This continued throughout the day with the nurses poor attitude and despite only recently having had a c-section I was expected to lift a heavy chair over to actually be able to sit beside my baby even though I asked for help. Although the other members of staff were lovely I found the nurse in charge that first day very abrupt and unable to have any empathy for a distressed mother. I was glad my baby was only in there two days as the midwives on the ward where much better and caring.  

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Responses

Response from Una Toland, Ward Manager, Neonatal Unit , Craigavon Area Hospital, Southern Health and Social Care Trust 3 years ago
We are preparing to make a change
Una Toland
Ward Manager, Neonatal Unit , Craigavon Area Hospital,
Southern Health and Social Care Trust

Submitted on 09/09/2020 at 09:55
Published on Care Opinion at 10:43

picture of Una Toland

Thank you for taking the time to reflect and give us feedback on your recent neonatal experience

As a team, we acknowledge the anxiety parents undoubtedly feel when your new-born baby is admitted to the neonatal unit. We also understand the importance of other family support during this worrying time.

We are sorry to hear that you felt the nurse in charge was not empathetic to you and you did not feel supported in the environment.

We do advise parents not to use mobile phones for making calls in the rooms where electronic monitoring of an infant’s condition is taking place. However, from your account of your experience, if an appropriate explanation as to why we discourage use of mobile phones for calls in the clinical area had taken place and if staff had shown you to an area close to the unit where you could safely make a call to your mum, then your experience may have been more positive. This can be shared with staff as a learning point and thank you for your view on this.

We do try to keep chairs in close proximity to the infant cot or incubator space and we acknowledge the risk you took moving a chair yourself.Your feedback on this issue has been taken on board for shared learning to make this easier for other parents

We are pleased you found the majority of staff to be supportive and we hope you are all doing well at home and your baby is thriving.

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Response from Una Toland, Ward Manager, Neonatal Unit , Craigavon Area Hospital, Southern Health and Social Care Trust 3 years ago
We have made a change
Una Toland
Ward Manager, Neonatal Unit , Craigavon Area Hospital,
Southern Health and Social Care Trust

Submitted on 15/10/2020 at 10:35
Published on Care Opinion at 11:04

picture of Una Toland

Dear Mazzamac, I just wanted to provide a further update in relation to the experience you shared a few weeks ago. We have shared your experience of care, with our staff, at our team huddles. Team huddles are meetings where aspects of quality and experience of care are discussed for learning purposes. We have reviewed the guidance given to parents on their first visit to the neonatal unit, this includes the appropriate use of mobile phones within the clinical area as well as advice to parents on directions to an area outside of the clinical area where they can freely contact family members Additionally our staff will endeavour to ensure appropriate seating is available for parents at the cot side and will also strive to provide a friendly welcome to parents at all times.

Again, I want to thank you for your valuable feedback and we all hope that you and your baby are keeping well

Best wishes Una

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