Care of very low birth weight infants by neonatal nurse clinicians.

In 1980, the medical facility at the authors' hospital developed a program to train neonatal critical care nurses for primary care provider roles in the intensive care nursery. The neonatal nurse clinician (NNC) program consists of a didactic portion that emphasizes physiology and pathophysiology of sick newborns, and an internship that focuses on the medical needs of very low birth weight (VLBW) neonates. At the completion of the internship, the NNC is assigned to be the primary care provider for infants with birth weights less than or equal to 1,250 g. This report discusses the NNC training program and the five-year experience with the NNC caring for VLBW infants.