Why there is a demand for neonatal nurses?
The health care industry involves various types of nurses such as registered nurse, practitioner nurse, and licensed nurse and so on. Another category of nurse that is involved in health care industry is the neonatal nurse practitioner. This category of nurse lies at the top-most level. This is mainly because of the duties that a neonatal nurse conducts. The main job of the neonatal nurse is to care for patients that are critically ill and look after the premature infants. The nurses in this category undergo a special kind of training that makes them a professional in dealing with such kind of situations. Overtime, there has been a lot of demand for neonatal nurses in the recent past in the United States. This demand for this category is mostly due to the following reasons.
- Not many apply for neonatal nurse: One of the major factors responsible for huge demand for neonatal nurses is that the number of people who wish to apply for this category of nurse is quite low. The major reason for this is difficult processes that are involved in obtaining the license for the neonatal nurse practitioner. This has also led to a lack of supply of neonatal nurses especially when there is huge demand for them from the public in the US.
- Increased birth survival rate of premature babies: It is reported that as many as forty thousand premature babies are born every year alone in the United States. Furthermore, studies also indicate that due to the specialized training provided to the neonatal nurses they are able to provide proper care to the premature babies. This in turn has increased the survivability rates of infants largely. To continue this trend, there is a need for more and more neonatal nurses, who can provide the much needed care for the premature babies and fill up the shortage of the neonatal nurses.
All these factors mentioned-above contribute greatly towards the demand of the neonatal nurse practitioners.