We have a very sick baby in the NICU on life support. Currently, he is 3 weeks old and has no known discharge date. This family has not been able to visit regularly due to significant housing, financial, and social barriers, as well as the COVID-19 outbreak, which has closed schools and daycares. The parents must balance childcare for their two children at home with visiting their hospitalized newborn.
Sweet Jenna, his nurse now for several weekends, felt it in her heart that the baby needed to be held, snuggled, and loved on. She made it a priority during her shift to set aside time for this to happen. Holding a baby on life support is much easier said than done. It requires a coordinated multi-disciplinary effort to safely take the baby out of his bed and reposition his ventilator circuit, feeding tube, multi-lumen central line, monitoring leads, pulse ox cable, and temperature probe. It requires a time commitment of at least an hour to make this possible and allow the baby adequate time to benefit from the human touch and interaction. Despite the obstacles, Jenna's team was incredibly supportive and determined to make this goal happen for the patient and his family.
Jenna has a heart of gold and leads by example with acts of kindness like this one on a regular basis. As you can see from her picture, she loves her job with all her heart and cares for all of her patients as if they were her own. She also serves as a charge nurse, preceptor, PICC Nurse, and when not working in the NICU, she serves the community as a SANE Nurse. We love Jenna and are so proud to have her on our team!