Neonatology

The mission of the Division of Neonatology is to provide excellent clinical service and education and to pursue scholarly activities.

The division is one of 16 academic divisions within the department of Pediatrics, and its neonatologists and neonatal nurse practitioners provide excellent clinical care to the babies in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Children’s Hospital. Meet the team.

Clinical Care

Clinical service starts with comprehensive prenatal counseling of expectant mothers who are at risk of delivering prematurely and/or who are pregnant with babies with birth defects. Three teams of neonatologists provide day-to-day care for the babies in the NICU, and a fourth team is on call every night. Neonatologists conduct family centered rounds in partnership with families (presence of the family is actively encouraged), bedside nurses, nurse practitioners, residents, medical students, pharmacists and respiratory therapists.

Education

Medical students

University of Missouri fourth-year medical students may elect to rotate through the NICU during their pediatric clerkship rotation. Each rotation is four weeks in duration. Medical students are mentored by the neonatologists and the nurse practitioners as they learn the basic principles of neonatal physiology and the art and science of caring for babies.

The Neonatology division also participates in the 3rd year medical students’ Pediatric Clerkship didactics program and delivers talks to the medical students on a regular basis as requested by the clerkship program.

Residents

Residents from the Pediatrics program rotate through the NICU during each year of their residency. The Internal Medicine-Pediatrics rotate through the NICU during the first two years of their training. Residents from the Family Medicine program also rotate through the NICU during their first year of residency.

The Neonatology division provides didactic and bedside education to the residents as well as simulation education. The division also created an online evidence-based, problem-oriented guide to many of the common problems in the NICU.

Other education

The division provides outreach education to our partners at Capital Regional Medical Center in Jefferson City as well as other community hospitals in the mid-Missouri area. The division provides ongoing education to nurses and allied health professionals internally at MU as well as those outside our institution. Our faculty and nurse practitioners participate in various programs, including Neonatal Resuscitation Program; Sugar, Temperature, Airway, Blood pressure, Lab work, and Emotional support (S.T.A.B.L.E.); and Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS), to mention a few.