在新生儿重症监护室由ECHO授权

艾玛Henggeler, RN, is Inspired by ECHO to Advocate for Moms in the NICU and Deepen Her 研究 into Postpartum Depression

艾玛Henggeler has changed hundreds of diapers in her life.

She is the oldest in a large family and has been an RN at St. Luke’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for five-and-a-half years.

“I come from a medical family – nurses, doctors, pharmacists,”她说。. “As the oldest sibling, it was natural for me to gravitate to nursing. 因为我是一个典型的维和人员, I need to know what’s going on beneath the surface and nursing lends itself to whole-person care.”

For some of the families Henggeler works with at the NICU, complexities beneath the surface may be related to mental health, 物质使用障碍, 或两个. To better understand neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS)—a condition facing babies who are born dependent upon substances they were exposed to in the womb—and how to provide better care to both infants and families while they are in the NICU, Henggeler routinely attended ECHO Idaho’s 2020 围产期物质使用障碍 (SUD) series.

The virtual 10-part series brought some of Idaho’s most accomplished and well-respected neonatal care and addiction specialists together to provide one-hour continuing education events via Zoom. Sessions were free to anyone who wanted to attend. Because of the prevalence of NAS across the country and demand for programming like this in Idaho, ECHO Idaho is offering the series again this year.

免费的，一口大小的知识块

Henggeler found more confidence in her advocacy of parents that struggle with 物质使用障碍s to remain present with their child in the NICU through attending ECHO Idaho’s PSUD series.

"ECHO Idaho is great because it provides you with knowledge in bite-size chunks for free. You get the opportunity to engage with experts and peers alike, and you discover what else you want to learn more about." 艾玛Henggeler，注册护士，St. 卢克的NICU

“We do our best, but the NICU just isn’t a very comfortable environment. 空气中有很多压力，”她说. “Families with 物质使用障碍 may feel even more uncomfortable there because of implicit biases and judgements. But we know that mom is best for baby and attending 围产期物质使用障碍 empowered me to advocate for mom to be present.”

同时寻找支持母亲的声音, Henggeler appreciated that ECHO Idaho provided exposure to topics that were not yet on her radar.

“To get all the information packed into an ECHO series like this one, you’d have to know what you don’t know – and you’d have to pay for it,”她说。. “ECHO Idaho is great because it provides you with knowledge in bite-size chunks for free. You get the opportunity to engage with experts and peers alike, and you discover what else you want to learn more about.”

ECHO Idaho programming is hosted over lunch hours and continuing education (CE) credits are available each session. Full series attendance is not required and participants can join as their schedule allows. Session recordings also become available for viewing on YouTube the following week.

Henggeler is currently working on her Doctorate of Nursing Practice at Idaho State University. Partially inspired by what she learned at the Perinatal SUD series, she is working on a capstone project that will provide postpartum depression resources to providers like herself. 来帮助实现这一目标, she’s been in touch with some of the maternal fetal medicine specialists who helped facilitate the Perinatal SUD series, 包括圣. Lukes的Stacy Seyb, m.s.D.和杰瑞·伍德沃斯，RNC-OB.

“ECHO爱达荷州的价值很高，”亨格勒说. “这很容易参与, offers free CE and provides me with a really meaningful hour with others who are in my field and want to help, 好像我想帮忙似的.”

ECHO Idaho’s 10-part 围产期物质使用障碍 series begins Wednesday, 3月10日, and meets the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month from noon to 1 p.m. 山地时区. A full schedule of session topics, as well as registration information is available online.

Written by Lindsay Lodis and Sam Steffen, ECHO Idaho.
图片由艾玛Henggeler提供.
2021年2月出版.