Specialist training to help smallest survive

The first nurses will graduate later this year, with hopes that even more babies can recover after being born too early, building on improvements already seen in survival rates in recent years.

Health campaigners welcomed the move, with hopes it will provide more consistent levels of care across the country.

Dr Jayne Donaldson, head of the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Care at Napier, said the post-graduate course was designed for nurses who are already registered but wanted to specialise in neonatal care.

The university won a tender from the NHS to supply this training for the whole of Scotland, making it the first time there has been a nationally agreed approach to neonatal training.

Until now, such training has been conducted on a less formal basis in units across the country.

Dr Donaldson said one of the reasons the training had become so important was due to the need to transport very small, ill babies to more specialised centres, and the difficulties this presented.

"One of the parts of the training is around how we safely transport neonates from the Highland and islands, for example, to a specialised unit here in Edinburgh," she said.

"They are extremely ill at that stage and it is intensive care skills that are needed and making the transport area like an intensive care unit which takes the baby safely to the next area."

About 11 per cent of births need neonatal care - about 6,000 babies across Scotland.

Dr Donaldson said the number of babies needing neonatal care was increasing as advances in treatment meant more were surviving but needing prolonged treatment.

Figures show deaths among newborns have been steadily decreasing in recent years. In 2005 there were 190 neonatal deaths in Scotland, falling to 165 in 2009. Advances in ventilation techniques and temperature control along with drug treatments have helped increase survival.

Dr Donaldson said ventilation skills were important for nurses working in neonatal units.

"The needs of children and adults needing ventilation would be quite different to a baby who is 2lb in weight," she said.

The school includes a mock-up neonatal ward at the site where the nurses can enter into life-like medical situations. "There are mannequins which are neonatal-sized," Dr Donaldson said. "We will carry out simulated real scenarios in real time. For example, if the student administers a medication, then we can alter the mannequin's physiology in response to that medication and then see how they could fix the problem."Dr Donaldson said nurses on the course could go on to become advanced neonatal nurse practitioners.

"They are more specialised to look after children who traditionally would have been looked after by medical staff," she said.

Dr Donaldson said most of trainees had been seconded from Scotland's 16 neonatal units to do the training.

"The idea is that the outcomes and the survival rates will continue to improve," she said.

Jane Abbott, of the premature baby charity Bliss, said: "This approach to specialist neonatal training is extremely positive and will help to ensure consistency throughout Scotland.

"It is crucial that all babies, no matter where and when they are born, receive the very highest level of care and treatment."