Albury Wodonga Health, Wodonga Campus Special Care Nursery (SCN) is an 9 – 14 cot, Level 4 High Dependency Nursery. There are around 450 neonates admitted to our unit each year. We accept babies born from 32 weeks gestation or newborn birthweight of 1500grams.
The Special Care Nursery is a team of highly skilled Specialist Nursing and Medical staff who provide a Family-Centred Care approach, in which the parents are central in all care given to their baby.
The Special Care Nursery is designed to care for premature and sick neonates while providing expertise for specialised neonatal care. We aim to nurture all caregivers, within a supportive environment while empowering them to ensure their baby gets the best outcome.
Babies are admitted to our Special Care Nursery with a range of conditions, or complications from birth. These babies are particularly vulnerable to becoming extremely unwell. We uphold a strong relationship with Paediatric Infant Perinatal Emergency Retrieval (PIPER) who provide transfer via road/air for babies requiring tertiary care.
Therefore there are visiting restrictions to the Special Care Nursery. We ask for your understanding and assistance as a priority, so we can provide the best possible care to our vulnerable babies. Please note anyone who is, or has been unwell in the preceding 14 days must not visit the Maternity Unit or the Special Care Nursery.
To ensure the safety of your baby and others in the SCN, we ask that all visitors adhere to the following:
- Due to COVID-19 visiting hours may be affected, please see Vic Health guidelines. However, local restrictions will also apply, so please check AWH visitor page for variations.
- To reduce the risk of infection, hands are to be washed upon entering SCN by all parties;
- Parents may visit their baby at any time, 24 hours day;
- “Quiet Time” is between 1-3 pm daily and only parents are permitted;
- All visitors must be nominated by parents and be named on the SCN visitor’s sheet;
- To promote a nurturing environment, please limit visitors to one parent and one visitor at a time;
- Siblings must be supervised at all times, and other relatives ( eg Grandparents) may visit during visiting hours only;
- Face masks are to be worn at all times while in SCN;
- To reduce bedside noise levels in the SCN, please ensure your phone is either set to silent or turned off., and please clean your phone regularly