This week is National Nurse’s week so my message and thanks go out to all you nurses who work tirelessly (and at all hours of the day AND night) to save lives, provide comfort, and teach us how to care for ourselves and the ones we love. I’ve had more than my share of experiences with you for both personal and family reasons and always marvel at the passion that must burn within you to help others- regardless of how busy, tired and stressed you may be or how rude, angry, impatient, or “entitled” your patients can be.
Professionally, HALO and I have been working with nurses for just over 5 years through our standard-of-care driven Safer Way to Sleep Program®. It’s no surprise that birth center and NICU nurses play critical roles in educating new parents on how to care for their newborn once they go home. It’s also no surprise this is a very daunting task given how busy nurses are, the short duration of most hospital stays, the exhausted state Mom is in, and the head-spinning amount of information and questions facing new parents.
Our Safer Way to Sleep Program was created to make the task of educating new parents easier and more effective. HALO supplies Safe Sleep, bi-lingual brochures and door hangers, written by First Candle/SIDS Alliance to hospitals and educators at no charge. These are useful in teaching how to create a safer sleep environment for their baby once home and inform other caregivers (daycare, babysitters, grandparents, etc.) on the risk factors for SIDS and suffocation, as well.
HALO also works with over 800 birth centers and NICU’s (and a million new babies every year!) to model a Safe Sleep environment, so what a new parent SEES happening in the hospital is consistent with what they HEAR in the hospital. Reinforcing what they are (hopefully) being told by a nurse about Safe Sleep prior to discharge thru visual modeling in the hours following their child’s birth will make the Safe Sleep message clearer and more memorable.
So, to all you Nurses out there, THANK YOU for all your hard work, tender care and efforts to keep us safe, healthy and informed and to all the rest of you… give a nurse a HUG!