Under pressure, the challenges of neonatal nursing

Caring for sick newborns in a poorly resourced hospital is a very challenging job. Yet this is not the only challenge many nurses face as they juggle supporting families and lives in a busy city. Some nurses have developed ways to cope in these difficult circumstances but for many the relentless pressure may cause them harm while upholding the ideals of nursing may seem impossible. Interview recorded in 2018

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Neonatal nursing in Kenya

Nurses in Kenyan hospitals are very busy, with high nurse to patients ratios. They face an extremely stressful enviroment, exacerbated by bad reports in the press. Babies are particularly vulnerable during their first two days of life. A better understanding of the coping mechanisms put in place by those nurses could help us ensure a better survival rate for these babies. Interview recorded in 2016

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Jacob McKnight is a post-doctoral researcher with an interest in health systems and reform. After working for Medecins Sans Frontieres, he completed a PhD at Said Business School focused on hospital management in Ethiopia. He used organisational and marketing theory to provide new perspectives on public health problems.

Jacob leads the ethnographic element of the Health Services that Deliver for Newborns (HSD-N) study. He also co-leads an ESRC-funded project that seeks to understand Infection Prevention and Control practices in Kenya and the response to the threat of Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR). Jacob is also Principle Investigator on a Gates-funded project that is seeking to build an app that helps Kenyans locate better, cheaper lab services.