A nurse who pioneered a way of preventing newborn sickly babies spending up to three months in hospital has been nominated in The Sunday Post category of the Royal College of Nursing Scotland awards.
Babies who must undergo major surgery to repair serious defects and holes where their abdomen does not close over while they develop in the womb often spend months in hospital recovering.
However, training for parents, along with their local hospitals and community nurses, means the infants are allowed to join their families earlier and undergo the final weeks of recovery at home.
As a founding member of the surgical liaison service at the Glasgow Queen Elizabeth University Hospital neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), nurse Maggi Reeves has helped hundreds of babies complete their recovery in the bosom of their families.
She said: “Allowing babies to leave hospital earlier and reunite them with their families can make huge differences to those who live great distances away.
“We saw that parents were exhausted and under considerable pressure running back and forward to hospital, often with older children at home. Some of these babies are from families living more than 100 miles from hospital. Babies who would continue to thrive at home with care from their parents assisted by nurses in the community, local hospitals and ourselves, recovered just as well as those in hospital for up to 12 weeks.”
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The surgical liaison nurse is retiring after 41 years of caring for desperately ill children.
However, she plans to take just a few weeks off and return to her intensive care baby unit as a staff nurse working shifts.
“I love my job so much. I guess I cannot bear to leave it behind.
“Seeing babies recover to go home with their families is so rewarding but I am just one of an excellent team.
“Nursing is a vocation in all senses of the word, whether it’s caring for seriously ill, premature and sick babies, or the elderly in the last stages of life.”
Her nursing career has taken her from Glasgow Royal Infirmary to the former Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Yorkhill, Glasgow, and then to the QEUH.
The NICU unit in the QEUH covers the entire west of Scotland, from the Outer Hebrides to Dumfries and Galloway.
Holes or weaknesses in a developing baby’s abdomen can mean that its bowel develops outside the body and needs to be repaired and positioned in the body.
Abdominal defects are often detected in ultrasound scans in pregnancy around 18 to 20 weeks gestation allowing obstetricians, NICU nurses and paediatricians time to plan the baby’s lifesaving treatment.
Surgery is performed usually within days of birth or with major holes, in stages. Vital organs which developed outside the body are eased back gradually and surgery closes the hole after they are all sited in place. Even after repair infants can have problems with digesting food and absorbing all the nutrients.
Besides nursing very sick babies, Maggi has also recruited parents into nursing careers to follow in her footsteps, inspired by her style and approach to caring for the whole family.
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Claire McRobbie, mum to Ciaran, who was born with a hole in his abdomen, was so motivated by his care she decided to become a neonatal intensive care nurse and now works alongside her mentor Maggi.
“She is an outstanding nurse who has transformed the lives of many patients and colleagues for decades,” said Claire.
“I had graduated with a primary teaching degree but then decided to train as a midwife. After watching Maggi care for Ciaran and other very ill babies, I decided to become a neonatal nurse.
“We are so glad she is coming back to work shifts in the unit because she still has so much to offer.”
The popular NICU nurse has been nominated in the Sunday Post category of the Royal College of Nursing Scotland Awards.
Julie Lamberth, RCN Scotland Board chairwoman, said: “Nurses and nursing support workers are innovators and problem solvers.
“The People’s Choice Award is the public’s opportunity to recognise a nurse, midwife or nursing support worker who has made a difference.”
Nominate any nurse, midwife or nursing support worker today at rcn.org.uk/scotland or write to RCN Scotland, 42 South Oswald Road, Edinburgh, EH9 2HH.
Just say who you are, who your nomination is and why. The deadline is January 12.
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