JACKSONIAN

For new parents, a trip to the neonatal intensive care unit for their baby can be a very scary experience. Nurses like Shannon Alsobrooks help make the time less stressful for parents by providing their little ones with the best care possible.

Graduating from St. Joseph Catholic School in 2013, Alsobrooks attended the University of Southern Mississippi for two years before transferring to the University of Mississippi Medical Center to begin nursing school. She needed only one clinical rotation through one of the hospital’s most critical units for her to decide which specialty was for her: the newborn intensive care unit.

“We had a clinical in the NICU, and I was so nervous to go to it,” Alsobrooks says. “I was scared of how overwhelming it was there, but when I got there I just fell in love.”

Earning her bachelor’s degree in nursing in 2017, Alsobrooks immediately went to work in the hospital’s NICU. At the state’s only Level IV neonatal facility, she coordinates with a specialized care team of doctors, therapists and other medical professionals to ensure that their smallest patients receive meticulous care. She also teaches parents how to properly care for their newborns by providing physical instruction and emotional support.

“It can be incredibly (difficult) to find the right word to say to someone who is facing their worst day ever. You have to be compassionate, but also stick up for your little patient,” she said. “(But it is) always exciting to see patients grow and come back to visit us.”

Alsobrooks, who lives in Jackson with her husband, Kolbe, says that even with COVID-19, operations have largely continued as they had before. As a common practice the nurses have always “scrubbed in” before each shift and anytime they enter the nursery. Parents may still visit their baby’s bedsides, albeit one at a time.

Very strict guidelines were already in place for visitors, including washing hands to above the elbows for three minutes with soap provided before entering the nursery, using the alcohol foam provided at each baby’s bedside whenever they touch anything other than their baby or their station and wearing a gown over clothing when holding the baby. The unit has, however, committed to social-distancing guidelines.

“It hasn’t changed how we care for patients,” Alsobrooks says. “The NICU always had the best handwashing practices.”

In the three years since she began her career, Alsobrooks has had rewarding moments and emotional ones. Nevertheless, Alsobrooks knows she is where she belongs. “I love working with the babies and helping the parents,” she says. “I can’t see myself doing anything different. It is an amazing place where miracles happen.”

—Torsheta Jackson