September 15 is Neonatal Nurses Day. Although it is a nationally recognized day, the City of Albuquerque had not officially recognized it until now. Eva Budzinkski, a career neonatal nurse from Lovelace Women’s Hospital, spearheaded the effort to get a Mayoral Proclamation on Neonatal Nurses Day from the City of Albuquerque. We sat down with Eva to talk about her passion for being a neonatal nurse and the importance of this day of recognition.
What is a neonatal nurse?
Anyone who takes care of the baby from the moment they are born through the first 30 days is considered a neonatal nurse. Most hospitals do mother-baby care where they take care of mothers and babies, and that counts too, because they are taking care of babies.
Why did you want this day recognized?
Before I came to Lovelace Women’s Hospital, a congressman had come through the hospital I was working at and saw a board for all the neonatal nurses by our cafeteria. It had all their years of experience posted and the congressman who saw it was so impressed he went and visited with all the neonatal nurses working at that time in the NICU. He then went back to Washington D.C. and had us noted in the congressional record.
When I got to Albuquerque, I noticed nobody does anything in this city to celebrate Neonatal Nurses Day. And I found in the New Mexico Nurses Association newsletter that Neonatal Nurses Day had city proclamations from Santa Fe and Las Cruces but not Albuquerque. So I thought, ‘Well, let me see what I can do to get a Mayoral Proclamation for us for Neonatal Nurses Day.’ So I found out how to get it, and now we have Mayor Proclamation for the City of Albuquerque coming for September 15th.
What is special about Lovelace Women’s Hospital’s neonatal nurses?
I have tallied up all our nurses’ experience and found out that we have over 750 years of experience right here in our NICU at Lovelace Women’s Hospital. On September 15, we will have had one nurse who has been on staff for two days, a brand new hire. We will also have Becky O’Neil who is one of our nurse practitioners, and has been a neonatal nurse for 38 years. So we have the whole realm from newbies to well-experienced nurses. When people go into being a neonatal nurse, they tend to stay there for good. We rarely have neonatal nurses who do other things in nursing. It wraps around your heart and it becomes your lifelong occupation.
What have you seen change in your time as a neonatal nurse?
Things we studied in the 1980’s are now standard. There is always something new. We have new therapies, new treatments, new looks on how breast milk affects brain development. With the advancement in prenatal care that is available, babies are more secure.
What is the best part of being a neonatal nurse?
The babies, I can’t leave the babies. It is what I do, it is what I enjoy. We take families who are shattered and put them back together. Babies are born sick, things happen during the pregnancy and families become shattered, and we bring the family back together. That is what has kept me doing this for 35 years.
What can the public do to recognize neonatal nurses?
We just want to bring awareness that this is a neat specialty within nursing. Our nurses are very prepared and focused. We don’t expect balloons all over the city, but recognition that neonatal nurses are special.
It would be cool if people can share their experiences with neonatal nurses on Facebook. We love hearing back from the families we serve.