ABSTRACT
Infants born too soon, too small and too sick are society’s most vulnerable and smallest members and until recently have been invisible, as care and care issues have been dealt with behind the closed doors of the neonatal unit. Prematurity is a global issue. Efforts to reduce mortality rates in children under 5 have shifted the world’s focus to the preterm infant. Global strategies, such as improving newborn resuscitation or attending to the infant’s thermal needs at birth to improve morbidity and mortality, are now in place. Whether one is working within a low-resource/low-income country or high-resource/high-income country, the neonatal nurse plays an important front-line role in improving infant and family outcomes for this group.
