OT in the NICU

Hi Readers:

This week I want to talk about the NICU, or the neonatal intensive care unit. This is a department in a hospital deals with prematurely born babies and newborns who are experiencing problems after birth. The occupational therapist’s role in the NICU is to evaluate the baby, develop a plan of treatment, assist in treatment, and to educate the families, then finally the discharge process.

Areas of treatment that the occupational therapist works with the baby on are neurobehavioral organization, sensory development and processing, motor function, pain, daily activity and social-emotional development (AOTA). Even though this unit strictly works with infants, it works with patients who have all different kinds of conditions.

A fellow blogger named Kayla has a whole blog dedicated to occupational therapist in the neonatal intensive care unit. She discusses treatments and managements, different types of patients in the NICU and more. Kayla is also an occupational therapist major at Saint Louis University and has a strong interest in children. Kayla uses great sources in her weekly blog posts, giving her posts great credibility. If you want to learn more about occupational therapy in the NICU, go to Kayla’s blog “Occupational Therapy in the NICU”.  I will leave the link below! I hope you learned a little bit more about OT in the NICU and find Kayla’s blog even more helpful!

Thanks for reading!

Megan

Kayla's blog: http://nicuot.blogspot.com/

References:

American Occupational Therapy Association. (2006). Specialized knowledge and skills for occupational therapy practice in the neonatal intensive care unit. Retrieved from http://www.aota.org/-/media/corporate/files/practice/children/browse/ei/official-docs/specialized%20ks%20nicu.pdf