Why do I want to be a nurse? I have wanted to be a neonatal nurse since before I could remember. Something about their work and ambition made me want to follow that career path on my own. Becoming a neonatal nurse has been my dream for a long time now. For this essay I carried out research on the reasons for becoming a nurse, I spoke with other neonatal nurses asking them why they become nurses, trying to grasp all aspects of the career itself, such as the good, the bad, and the ugly, which it certainly brings with itself all careers. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay​What exactly is a neonatal nurse? A neonatal nurse is an RN (registered nurse) who works specifically in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). A neonatal nurse is responsible for monitoring fragile newborns, while they still need to be in intensive care and supervised, before they can go home with their excited but worried new parents. This is a very important role in any hospital. Some babies will remain in the NICU for up to a year after birth at various facilities. This can be very difficult to imagine when you love and have a passion for newborns and grieving families. Neonatal nurses are responsible for caring for these babies who have medical conditions and require specialized care, as opposed to a healthy newborn who would go home with his parents within 2-3 days. Being in the NICU is a much longer and more painful process and it takes qualified and trained people to be able to do this job. That's why this work is so interesting to me. Not only do I love babies and know that I would feel connected to each and every one while caring for them, I feel that neonatal nurses give newborns a very loud voice for others to hear, when they are too quiet. Of course this is strictly metaphorical, it is very important to be able to care and love children and their families to do this career correctly and be happy at the same time in choosing your career. According to RegisteredNursing.Org certifications and credentials required to work as a neonatal nurse are as follows: must be an RN in the United States of Canada, must have been employed in a neonatal nursing position within the last 2 years, must have at least 2,000 hours in the neonatal department experience working directly with patients , education, patient care and research, or have at least 2 years of experience working comprehensively with newborn patients with medical conditions. NICU nurses aren't just needed in hospitals. You must also obtain a four-year bachelor's degree in Nursing. Neonatal nurses may also be employed by community organisations, charities, home healthcare, hospitals and even neonatal intensive care units (which in most hospitals is its own floor and is considered separate). There are different levels to being a neonatal nurse. In total there are 4 different levels which are as follows: Level I: (Basic neonatal care) Postnatal care in newborns who may be born within 35-37 weeks in the gestation period. This is only to monitor the baby, as it is a premature birth. This mainly requires basic care of the newborn with some specialized aspects depending on the health of the newborn and what he may or may not have problems with afterwardsto have come out of the womb. Level II: (Advanced Neonatal Care) An experienced neonatal nurse who will assist the newborn with whatever concerns they have medically, such as breathing or feeding. Level III: (specialist newborn care) Nurses working at this level will work with babies born before 32 weeks of gestation. These babies are considered severely premature and will need excessive and precise care. Level IV: (Highest Level of Neonatal Care) These level nurses provide care to newborns born at 22-24 weeks of gestation. These nurses assist in open heart surgeries if needed, heavy ventilation for the baby, and other heavy procedures that the baby's health may require. Although the pay range for a neonatal nurse means less to me, the normal rationed pay for a neonatal nurse is around $60,000 per year. As for where neonatal nurses are, you can earn up to $93,000 per year. The demands for nurses are strong, as they are needed virtually everywhere there is medical care and, well, children. Like any career, there are negatives and positives to this career. Obviously looking from the outside it seems pretty simple, right? You get to hold and cuddle babies all day, then they come home and you're ready for the next sweet, cute ray of sunshine. Wrong. There are very dark moments while working as a neonatal nurse. There are times when a newborn's condition is simply irreversible and you have to watch them suffer. Or when a baby is fine and just needs a little extra oxygen and can go home with mom and dad in a couple of days, and then the next baby that comes can't go home with their parents . Not all cases are the same, there are nightmares even in neonatal nursing. What is the history of neonatal nursing? Where does it come from? We all know that medical advances have changed dramatically over the decades/centuries. Women have always had children, but neonatal breastfeeding has not always existed. Neither neonatal intensive care units nor hospitals. So what did a couple do decades ago if there was a problem with the baby or pregnancy? When was neonatal care born? Nearly a century ago, neonatal intensive care units did not exist. Many children who were sick or had birth defects and illnesses were still sent home from the hospital because they didn't yet have the kind of care or the knowledge in the hospitals to do any kind of therapy. intensive care for newborns. Unfortunately, most of the children sent home died before their first birthday. This happened in a serious way more often than it does now, only because medical advances, medicines, diseases, treatments and diagnoses have been discovered over the years. The first neonatal intensive care unit was created only in 1922, however specialized care for newborns was not created and was available until the late 19th century. This was such a shame for all the sick children who were sent home and died before they could even remember or live their lives. It wasn't until well after World War II that hospitals began creating special care units for newborns. This idea was born when professionals realized that heat control, humidity control, and a constant flow of oxygen could dramatically increase a sick child's chances of recovering and being able to live a healthy life with their parents. How are neonatal nurses defined? What drives them to do such personal work? When you think about all the pain and.