Today, nurses and midwives from across the country gathered to broaden their knowledge on the care of newborns, especially those born sickly or premature. We spoke to the Chair of the Nurses and Midwives Council, Augustine Elijio, about the annual conference and how it helps to improve healthcare in Belize...
Augustine Elijio, Chair. - Nurses & Midwives Council
"It's an annual nursing conference. Today's conference is under the theme 'Developmental care of the Newborn', very timely and very essential for nurses."
Reporter
"Do we have a representation from all major hospitals in Belize?"
Augustine Elijio
"Again, definitely. it's a need, if we're supposed to breasted, if we're supposed to be knowledgeable and because we render that type of care in every facility regardless of the level, then we need to have nurses from all those hospitals including the private sector."
Sherry Weiss, NICU Nurse
"One of the things that we've been asked to do is to look at the development of premature infants and the environment. As nurses we can help promote good brain growth in babies by giving them an environment that is developmentally sound. We're also looking at nutrition and the importance of nutrition in brain development and brain growth. We're looking at the risk of high oxygen for babies, they actually can end up with respiratory distress and respiratory complications by receiving too much oxygen. So we are looking at ways and strategies to help keep our babies from receiving too much oxygen before birth. We are also looking at grief and lost for parents who have lost babies and are grieving. Their grieving because their baby's in NICU, so we're all addressing that. We're addressing ways that nurses can help babies by positioning them in different positions by controlling the NICU environment to make it more like the womb."
The conference's presenters and specialists will be touring a Belizean hospital tomorrow to get a better understanding of what areas of newborn care needs improvement.
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