Who is performing medical procedures in the neonatal intensive care unit?

Objective:owing to resident work-hour reductions and more permanent personnel in the newborn intensive care unit (nicu), we sought to determine if pediatric housestaff are missing learning opportunities in procedural training due to non-participation.study design:a prospective, observational study was conducted at an academic nicu using self-reported data from neonatal personnel after attempting 188 procedures on 109 neonates, and analyzed using fisher's exact and χ2-tests.result:housestaff first attempted 32% of procedures (p<0.001) and were less likely to make attempts early in the academic year (p<0.001). there was no significant difference in attempts based on urgency of situation (p=0.742). of procedures performed by non-housestaff personnel, 93% were completed while housestaff were present elsewhere in the unit.conclusion:pediatric housestaff performed the minority of procedures in the nicu, even in non-urgent situations, and were often uninvolved in other procedures, representing missed learning opportunities.