The specifics of care for a newborn baby of a drug-addicted mother

The neonatal abstinence syndrom occures in newborns of addicted mothers to any kind of drug. The drugs may be soft (legal) or hard (illegal). The manifestation of neonatal abstinence syndrom is mostly of neurological symptoms, such as seizures, restlessness and tremble. The neonatal abstinence syndrom can also be manifested by gastrointestinal, respiratory and termoregulation problems. Neonatal abstinence syndrom begins to manifest within 24 to 72 hours after birth and the most conclusive examination drug testing is from newborn's meconium. The newborns are assesed by the Finnegan score and if the result is higher than eight points, the neonatal abstinence syndrome can be diagnosed. The first goal was to reveal and describe the differences in care between a newborn of a drug-addicted mother and a physiological newborn, second goal was to specify nursing problems of a newborn of a drug-addicted mother and the third goal was to concretize the role of the nurse in a care of a newborn of a drug-addicted mother. The research part of this work was processed by the qualitative research method, using semi-structured interviews. The interviews took place in june 2022. Five interviews were recorded on a recording device and three interviews were written down on a paper due to dissapproval of said nurses to record the interviews. All interviews were transcribed into Microsoft Word programme. The ATLAS.ti programme was used to analyse, code and create schemes. The data was split into parts and codes were added to the said parts. The codes were put into categories related to the research questions. Afterwards, the schemes were made from said categories and subcategories. Based on data collected from the research we can say that the most common nursing problem in a newborn with neonatal abstinence syndrom is restlessness, crying, tremor, scream, sleep deprivation, instability of temperature, gulping and vomiting. Futhermore, the analysed data showed that the role of a nurse in taking care of a newborn with NAS are mainly "nurse as a provider of nursing care" and "nurse as a educator". The main differences in care between the newborn of a drug-addicted mother and a physiological newborn are in nutrition, contact with mother, when it also depends on her presence and the condition of the baby, in participation of other profesionals. There are hardly any differences in education, but it also depends on the condition of a baby and its needs. In conclusion, the most common nursing problems in a baby with neonatal abstinence syndrom are neurological problems, following the problems with sleep, temperature and nutrition. The nurse is mainly in a role of a nurse educator and provider of a nursing care. The differences in care between the baby with NAS and the physiological baby depend on the presence of its mother, the condition of the baby and its gestational age. The differences are mostly in nutrition and the participation of profesionals, for example the child protect services. The results of this research can be used in improving the quality of care for newborns with NAS, in an education of the future pediatric nurses in Pediatric nursing study programme and in further education of pediatric nurses in NAS in hospital through lectures