Can a person work with newborns in a hospital's nursery without first becoming a nurse?

Question

I have an associates degree in education and plenty of experience working with children from 6 weeks to 5 years old in day cares and preschools, but I would really love to be working hands on with the newborns in a hospital. I thought there might be some kind of job in that department that wouldn't require having a RN's degree. Does anyone know of any? Thanks for the replies:)

Answer 1

Sure. you can work as a nurse's aide

Answer 2

You need to be a Registered Nurse first. Then you can apply to any hospital and they will train you to the position and will give you any classes you need, such as NRP (certified in Neonatal Rescusitation). But it might be hard to get hired without experience as a new graduate. You might want to consider getting a job as a postpartum nurse, caring for both mothers and their newborns first. This would give you some valuable experience that would assist you in getting a job as a nursery nurse. At some hospitals, they don't hire a person specifically to the nursery - they cross train the postpartum nurses to work in the nursery as well, so some shifts you do postpartum and some shifts you work only in the nursery. Some people can go on to school and get a master's degree and become a neonatal nurse practitioner, but usually they work out of a NICU or Special Care Nursery and not just the healthy newborn nursery.

Answer 3

I know some hospitals have volunteers that would hold newborns or something along those lines. beyond that though, I'm not really sure.

Answer 4

I think it depends on the hospital , some of them need people to help with the drug dependent baby's so go ask at your hospitals