The demand for NICU nurses is on the rise. Do you dream of taking care of humanity? Want to make significant changes in their lives? Is caring for newborns something that you are good at? If yes, learning how to become a NICU nurse will surely be a perfect career path for you.
This article covers everything from what a NICU nurse is to how to adopt this career, education requirements, career outlook, and much more. Interestingly, this field leads to established careers with significant job growth and decent salary.
What is a NICU Nurse?
The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) nurse is a specialized nurse responsible for caring for newborn babies and assisting their parents in this regard. They are also known as neonatal nurses. These nurses work with babies suffering from medical issues like infections, cardiac problems, low birth weight, and congenital disorders. The infants receive healthcare services from NICU nurses for the first two years of their lives.
Understanding the Specialized Role of a Neonatal Nurse
Generally, NICU nurse responsibilities include taking care of infants from the time of their birth to when they are discharged from the healthcare units. The survival rate of premature babies or infants, who suffer from any disease right after birth, is ten times higher than 15 years ago, according to the National Association of Neonatal Nurses (NANN). The credit goes to the advanced techniques and the latest treatment approaches introduced in the last decade.
Neonatal nursing, without a doubt, is the most challenging nursing profession because infants can’t even tell or share what they are suffering from. Therefore, a NICU nurse should have quick reactions, great observation, and empathy skills. If you have a passion for taking care of newborns and are confident enough to do that, you may be a perfect fit for the neonatal nursing field.
Where Do Neonatal Nurses Work?
As stated earlier, NICU nurses work in neonatal intensive care units of hospitals, medical centers, or clinics. Besides serving neonatal intensive care units, NICU nurses can work in other sectors like community health settings, home health services, and maternity wards. The level of effort required depends on where you work. For instance, if you serve a level-II NICU of a community hospital, you may need to help newborns with medications, feeding, or breathing issues. In contrast, if you get a chance to serve top-rated children’s hospitals or medical centers, the infants and their parents in level-III NICU will require extra care. The neonatal nurses also offer home-based treatments for high-risk baby patients.
Work Days as a Neonatal Nurse
Infants need healthcare services round the clock. Because of this, medical centers and hospitals hire multiple resources to care for them throughout the day. The working schedule of neonatal nurses can range between eight to twelve hours, except for weekends or holidays. Nurses must stay alert during working hours because premature newborns require specialized care. They may need to deal with the breathing issues and feed them well on time to increase their chances of survival.
NICU Nurses Responsibilities
The job responsibilities may vary from one sector to another. For example, hospital neonatal nurses may have different roles than those employed in clinics or medical centers. The NICU nurse job description may include:
- Assessing infants condition
- Closely monitoring illness signs, e.g., body temperature and respiration.
- Keeping newborn babies comfortable, warm, and clean
- Implementing effective treatment approaches
- Performing complicated lifesaving procedures to increase the chances of survival.
- Measuring babies’ weights until they are discharged from the healthcare centers.
- Ensuring the availability of the desired medication
Levels of Neonatal Care
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) states that neonatal care consists of four levels. A NICU nurse can help infants in all of them, depending on the expertise and professional experience.
Level I: Basic Newborn Care
The first level of neonatal care deals with babies born in good conditions. The facilities where these babies are taken care of are called “well newborn nurseries.” The babies (35 to 37 weeks of gestation) receive postnatal care from NICU nurses in these facilities. The nurses working at level-I healthcare facilities can teach new mothers to care for their newborns. They can also perform vision and hearing tests and neonatal resuscitation.
Level II: Special Care
The babies in level-II nurseries are born with moderate medical issues (after 32 gestation weeks). They weigh around 1500 grams at the time of birth. They provide temporary assisted ventilation facilities to babies (who suffer from breathing issues) to improve their respiratory process. The NICU nurses in these facilities can perform intensive treatments to recover infants from various health problems.
Level III: Intensive Care
The intensive care or level-III nurseries are equipped with high-frequency ventilation supplies where ill infants are provided with advanced imaging and ongoing assisted ventilation. These nurseries are highly authorized to take care of newborn babies (before 32 gestation weeks) in the neonatal intensive care units. Babies suffering from severe surgical or medical problems or weighing less than 1500 grams are admitted to level-III nurseries.
Level IV: Highest Care Level
The highest care level or level-IV nurseries are regional neonatal intensive care units. These facilities are mostly linked to medical centers and hospitals specializing in high-risk medical treatments. The level-IV nurseries can provide ill infants with advanced surgeries, e.g., Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) and open-heart surgery. The facility of mechanical ventilation also remains available in these settings. Highly qualified, skilled, dedicated, and passionate staff take special care of babies born at 22 to 24 weeks of pregnancy.
How to Become a NICU Nurse, A Step-By-Step Guide
Like other career opportunities, becoming a neonatal nurse is not an overnight process. It consists of a series of steps. Completing academic qualifications is necessary, but gaining practical experience is equally essential. Most employers prefer shortlisting students with some experience working in a realistic environment. Let’s look closely at the steps required to become nursing informatics.
Step: 1 – Earn a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) Degree or ADN Degree
Earning a bachelor’s degree in nursing is the first step toward pursuing your career in nursing informatics. Most children’s healthcare centers and hospitals prefer hiring nurses with a BSN degree. While enrolling in a BSN program, the students must ensure that the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) accredits the school they are applying to. The hospitals only trust and give qualified and experienced nurses a chance to serve their neonatal intensive care units. However, many students adopt the shortest path. They earn an Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) to start their career.
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Step: 2 – Pass the NCLEX-RN Exam and Become a Registered Nurse (RN)
In the United States, every registered nurse must prepare for the National Council Licensing Exam (NCLEX) and pass it. This test focuses on four areas of nursing: the ability to provide appropriate nursing care, health maintenance, how to deal with the stress of nursing effectively, and providing safe healthcare environments. The students willing to appear in the NCLEX-RN exam should get tips from the seniors who have already passed it. It is an efficient strategy to pass the exam on the first attempt.
Step: 3 – Build Clinical Experience Working in a Neonatal Facility
Are you a registered nurse? Are you done with your NCLEX-RN exam? The next thing you should do to become a NICU nurse is to get clinical experience. You must work with ill infants and their parents for at least two years in medical centers, children’s hospitals, or clinics in NICUs. Once you step into the practical domain, you will learn about different areas of specialization like neonatal nurse managers, neonatal nurse practitioners, neonatal clinical nurses, and neonatal developmental healthcare experts.
Step: 4 Take and Pass a National Neonatal Certification Exam
Once the RNs get NICU experience, they search for certifications to give their professional careers a solid boost. Different organizations offer a couple of certification examinations linked to neonatal nursing. If we talk about NursingLicensure.org, a list of tests it provides are:
Step: 5 – Begin Your Career as a Certified Neonatal Nurse
Have you got the required qualifications? Got the neonatal nursing certificate too? Great! Then it’s time to move on and work in the field as a certified neonatal nurse. Although it is one of the most rewarding careers, it is challenging as well. Only choose this field if you are passionate about taking care of infants and serving their parents in the best possible manner. As a NICU nurse, you can create a big difference in the lives of people who have just entered this world. Fresh graduates should start exploring internship opportunities or mentorship programs to get some experience. If you are a seasoned nurse, try getting advanced certification to take your professional career to the next level.
NICU Nurse Education Requirements
Before applying to nursing schools, the students must be familiar with the NICU nurse education requirements. Many students earn an ADN degree and pass the NCLEX-RN exam to kick start their career in neonatal nursing. However, the top-rated hospitals and child care medical centers prefer resources with at least a bachelor’s degree in nursing.
Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) Degree
Having a BSN degree is a crucial NICU education requirement. BSN degree holders can grab high-paying employment opportunities in top-grade hospitals and child care clinical settings. This program prepares students for the NCLEX-RN exam. It offers a range of other benefits, e.g., promising careers, good pay scale, and significant job growth. Access to administrative and lead positions becomes easy for students with a BSN degree. NICU nurses can choose from multiple BSN degrees (like accelerated BSN programs and RN to BSN) that best match their needs. The students can find both online and on-site options.
Admission Requirements
The admission requirements may vary from one state to another and one school to the next. However, the most common prerequisites include:
- High school diploma (GED certificate is also acceptable in many universities)
- 2.5 GPA (not the same for all schools or universities)
- Updated resume
- Letter of recommendation
- Essay
- Completed courses in anatomy, chemistry, physiology, and microbiology
Program Curriculum
The most common courses taught in bachelor’s of science in nursing are community health nursing, psychology, pathophysiology, pharmacology, leadership and management, and research and statistics.
Time to Complete
Like many other undergraduate degrees, BSN takes four years to complete. Students may choose to further their education with a master’s degree after finishing their BSN, or they can opt to go directly from an RN to a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN).
Skills Learned
The students gather enough knowledge about the nursing field while doing a BSN degree. They also polish their communication, organizational, leadership, problem-solving, and management skills. Furthermore, they learn to ensure quality patient care and improve critical thinking.
Licensure and Certification
Neonatology is a specialized branch of nursing that requires advanced skill-level to effectively treat infants suffering from a range of medical issues, including but not limited to premature births, breathing problems, congenital disorders, and infections. Every NICU nurse must have an RN license because it is necessary to start clinical practice. To renew the license, the RNs should earn credit hours. Completing continuing education for nurses is also crucial for professional neonatal nurses. Regarding the certifications for NICU nurses, they are excellent tools to advance their careers. Employers are always more interested in certified neonatal nurses. It is a clear indication that certifications increase the overall credibility of nurses. The popular certifications for NICU nurses are listed below:
- NCLEX-RN exam
- RNC Certification for Neonatal Intensive Care Nursing (RNC-NIC)
- Critical Care Registered Nurse – Neonatal (CCRN-Neonatal)
- Inpatient Obstetric Nursing (RNC-OB)
- Maternal Newborn Nursing (RNC-MNN)
- Low-Risk Neonatal Intensive Care Nursing (RNC-LRN)
- Neonatal Intensive Care Nursing (RNC-NIC)
Career Information
Career information should be the student’s number one priority before choosing any specific career path because everyone wants to have a promising career in life. Before selecting a particular program, the students must be familiar with the career outlook, average salaries, and job growth. All these factors (if carefully considered) help you select the proper discipline to proceed with.
How Much Can You Make as a Neonatal Nurse?
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the mean annual salary of registered nurses is $82,750 as of May 2021. It becomes equal to $39.78 per hour. The NICU nurse starting salary (with less than one year of professional experience) is $25.94 per hour and goes up with the experience. The BLS claims that 3,047,530 registered nurses are currently working in the healthcare sector in the United States.
The nurses with one to four years of experience earn $31.14 per hour. Similarly, the NICU nurse’s salary for five to nine and ten to nineteen years of experience is $33.79 per hour and $35.60 per hour, respectively. In contrast, nurses with over two decades of professional experience earn $40.87 per hour.
Current Job Market for Neonatal Nurses
If you have just stepped into the nursing domain, the good news is that it has a great job market with significant growth. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics has recorded a 9% job growth between 2020 and 2030 for registered nurses. 194,500 jobs (including neonatal nurse practitioner jobs and NICU travel jobs) are expected to open annually within this span. Many of these openings are linked to replacing workers who transfer themselves to other domains. Also, don’t forget that employers look for RNs with a BSN degree, professional experience, and certifications.
Career Advancement Opportunities for Neonatal Nurses
Several career advancement opportunities are available for NICU nurses. The students with a bachelor’s degree in nursing can continue Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) or doctorate in the same domain. These advanced degrees help nurses get leadership roles in NICUs. Another way to become a credible Neonatal Nurse Practitioner (NNP) is to earn an undergraduate degree in nursing and get two years of practical experience in the NICU. For this, you should pass the NNP certificate exam. The National Certification Commission (NCC) conducts this exam. Being a NICU nurse, you can work in different roles, including but not limited to developmental care specialist, nurse manager, nurse midwife, clinical nurse specialist, and nurse educator.
What Skills Do You Need to be a Neonatal Nurse?
Now, you are well familiar with how to become a NICU nurse. The next step in your career should be getting the necessary skills to become a reliable and trustworthy neonatal nurse. A specialty in a specific area of nursing is not everything you need to be a successful NICU nurse. Rather, it would be best if you also focused on improving your critical thinking, decision-making, problem-solving, communication, and interpersonal skills. You will automatically get all these skills if you are passionate about this domain.
Furthermore, an excellent neonatal nurse must have leadership qualities and be a great team player to collaborate smoothly at every stage of their career and life. Besides that, excellent observation is a must-have skill for a NICU nurse. The patients are sensitive, and even a little mistake can lead to a life-threatening shock. This is why hospitals and child care clinics closely evaluate the skills of nurses before taking them on board.
Why Become a NICU Nurse?
This is the million-dollar question. The students must ask this question before going into this profession’s details. Once they find an answer to this question, the whole picture will become crystal clear for them. The most common reasons why thousands of students choose this career are listed below:
- Opportunity to serve the tiny souls
- Job security
- Promising careers
- Career advancement opportunities
- Good remuneration
- Travel opportunities
However, these are not all. There are tons of other reasons why many people choose neonatal nursing as their professional career.
FAQs
How long does it take to become a nurse in the NICU?
To become a NICU nurse, you should earn a nursing degree from a regionally accredited institution. To fulfill NICU nurse education requirements, students can enroll in either Associate Degree in Nursing (ASN) or a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN). The associate degree takes 24 months to complete, whereas a BSN is a four-year-long degree program. Therefore, it takes two to four years to become a NICU nurse.
Do NICU nurses deliver babies?
NICU nurses are responsible for taking care of newborn babies. For example, they often help deliver babies under experienced doctors’ supervision. After successful delivery, NICU nurses assess the babies’ condition and shift them to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Do NICU nurses hold babies?
Direct patient care is one of the core responsibilities of NICU nurses. They also assist new parents in holding their newborns skin-to-skin. Holding your baby this way is good for bonding. Besides that, NICU nurses ensure the babies have the perfect environment to sleep in.
What is the lowest salary for a NICU nurse?
The NICU nurse salary scale varies depending on multiple factors, e.g., degree earned, professional experience, and job location. In the United States, the average salary for an entry-level NICU nurse (with a minimum of one year of experience) is $25.94 per hour. It goes up to $31.14 per hour for nurses having one to four years of practical experience.
What is the difference between a neonatal nurse and a pediatric nurse?
The neonatal nurses work with sick newborns in different hospitals from their births to when they are shifted to pediatric units. They assist new parents in taking good care of their infants. On the other hand, pediatric nurses take care of babies (in a clinical or hospital setting) from two years to 18 years of age and provide them with healthcare services.
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Are you getting attracted to the nursing profession? If the answer to these questions is YES, NICU nursing is a perfect career option to achieve your goals. It is, without a doubt, a rewarding career path. Still, you need to be extra careful with your practical skills because a little error may result in a life-threatening incident. To become a NICU nurse, you must obtain a bachelor’s degree in nursing and pass the NCLEX-RN exam. In addition, get some relevant certifications to increase your chances of being selected in top-ranked medical hospitals, child healthcare centers, and clinics.