Navigating your baby’s health after discharge can be overwhelming. Our guest today will help us navigate the post-NICU experience with determining priorities and staying organized with post-NICU life. Dr. Kate Chappell is an Associate Professor with the University of South Carolina, College of Nursing and is a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner. She received her PhD in Nursing from the University of South Carolina and has been a nurse for nearly 20 years. She worked in the Pediatric Intensive Care setting and as a Nurse Practitioner in Pediatric Neurology and Forensics and Child Abuse. She has been part of the nursing faculty since 2007, teaching nurses and nurse practitioners. Her research and practice interests include family and healthcare provider vigilance for child abuse, creating equitable access to resources, integration of social determinants of health in nursing education, and resource support for children with specific healthcare needs. She serves as the Advocacy and Policy Chair for the Developmental, Behavioral, and Mental Health Special Interest Group in the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners. She is also the co-Program Director, alongside Dr. Victoria Davis, for two South Carolina based programs funded by US Dept. of Health and Human Services. One program, called Childcare Ready for All (or CRAwl), focuses on providing health need focused training and support for daycare and family care providers for children with a variety of health needs. The other program is BabyCoach, which focuses on providing nurse coaching support for families who have a baby leaving NICU or Special Care Nursery. Dr. Chappell is passionate about families feeling the emotional and material support they need to care for their child and feel secure in the care others are providing, to help families grow and stay strong and support the best outcomes for their children.

On this episode you we discuss the following topics:

• How Kate got into this line of work (in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit); 
• When families graduate from the NICU, it can be overwhelming to manage all of the follow-up appointments. How Kate determines priorities for care and follow-up appointments; 
• Kate's advice for families on how to stay organized for their follow up appointments; 
• If families need help with finding specialists, who they should contact for help after graduating from the NICU; 
• Government and insurance funded programs available for families to look into;
• The role of non-profit health & development organizations and programs to facilitate referrals and services; 
• The resources available to support mom and baby; 
• The roles of a case manager, NICU nurse, post-NICU nursing support/visiting programs, and how families know what these different roles can offer to support them; and,
• The one piece of advice Kate gives to NICU families? 

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This episode was produced and directed by Tony Lopes (SoftStix Productions LLC - www.softstixproductions.com, and CVO of CollegeCast LLC), along with co-producer and director of photography Michael Leary (One Fifteen Films LLC - www.onefifteenfilms.com, and CCO of CollegeCast LLC), and editor David DeLizza.

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