When to Contact a Health Provider (Nursing)

00:01 Other Discharge Teaching Topics.

00:03 Danger signs.

00:05 And we'll talk about those in just a second.

00:07 How to feed the baby and elimination? We have an entire lecture that's related to how we feed a newborn? Take a look at that, for details about that information.

00:17 We want to make sure the parents know how to provide comfort to the baby.

00:20 And we want to make sure that they have contact numbers for their providers.

00:25 So we don't want to send anybody home.

00:26 And if they have any of these problems, they have no one to call, because that's not really effective.

00:31 We want to make sure that the parents have a follow up appointment.

00:34 And it needs to be a provider they have access to both in terms of, what their insurance is going to cover, and a way to actually get there.

00:41 Because sending clients to a provider setting up an appointment with a provider that they don't have insurance coverage for, or a way to get there is not really setting up a follow up appointment.

00:52 If the baby's had a circumcision, we want to make sure the parents know how to provide adequate care for that circumcision.

00:58 So how to use the petroleum gauze, how to know and recognize signs of infection or heavy bleeding, and where to go should those things occur.

01:07 And we want to offer anticipatory guidance about comfort, about feeding, about just general going to the provider when they should go, what they should expect around activity, and how the baby should feel? These are all things we want to talk to parents about to give them confidence when they go home so they can take care of their baby.

01:27 So let's talk about those danger signs in detail.

01:30 So if we have a situation where the newborn has a fever of 100.4 or higher then a provider needs to be called.

01:38 We'll talk to the parents about the ways that the baby can lose heat.

01:42 And we want to remind them of that.

01:43 But if the baby is cold, then that's an emergency situation.

01:47 If there are any signs of seizure activity, if there's a skin rash that the parents are not able to really recognize as erythema toxicum or something like that they need to call.

01:58 Staph infections can happen in newborns.

02:00 And if that is the case, that can be life threatening.

02:04 Any change in behavior, the parents are going to know their baby.

02:08 And if the baby's acting differently than what they expect, or the way the baby has been behaving, then we need to know about that.

02:15 If the baby is lethargic, meaning they're not moving around very much or not very responsive, or not waking up to eat, then that's also an emergency and the provider needs to be called as soon as possible.

02:27 Diarrhea might result in dehydration.

02:30 Not eating may also result in dehydration.

02:34 Jaundice where the baby is yellow.

02:36 We'll talk about that in our discussion on newborn complications, but any sort of jaundice needs to be reported.

02:41 Any vomiting especially intractable or projectile vomiting.

02:45 Any abdominal distension or a tight abdomen may indicate that something's going on inside the pelvis or inside the abdomen.

02:53 If the infant turns blue at all the parents need to call 911.

02:57 Hopefully they've had a class on infant CPR.

03:00 And if not, this would be an excellent time to recommend that.

03:03 But anytime there's any question about the baby's color turning dusky, anything, they need to call 911 immediately.