Claire Panke is a NICU nurse at Lenox Hill's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. "When people walk into a NICU, they either cringe, or they melt - and I melted" says Claire. Everyday, nurses like Claire apply strategic hands on care to sustain and nurture critical newborns.

Claire Panke is a NICU nurse at Lenox Hill's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. "Even premature babies have personality" says Claire. Nurses like Claire observe how even premature babies have ways of communicating their needs.

Claire Panke is a NICU nurse at Lenox Hill's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. "Every family member who's walking into a NICU, is walking in on what is a huge crisis for that family... that could be the worst day of their life on what was supposed to be the best day of their life", says Claire. Everyday, NICU nurses work with parents as the co-caretakers of their babies.

Claire Panke is a NICU nurse at Lenox Hill's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. "Despite all the equipment we have to take care of the babies, there's nothing like parents' touch" says Claire. Skin to skin care has been proven to help babies grow faster, get off tube feeding faster and helps reconnect the baby, to their parents.

Claire Panke is a NICU nurse at Lenox Hill's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. "That saying 'it takes a village' is alive and well and kicking in the NICU" says Claire.

Claire Panke is a NICU nurse at Lenox Hill's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. "Discharge day for families can be a mixed bag; they're very excited and they've often been waiting for this for a long time, but it's also really scary". Claire describes the sense of triumph that the families and nurses share, on a day when a baby goes home.