Respiratory distress (RD) in the neonate can be difficult to manage, especially in LMICs, where knowledge gap and lack of efficient equipment make this even worse for the nurse. At Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) Kano, Nigeria, RD has been the nurses’ nightmare which has been recently minimized by a novel idea of a ‘Respiratory Support Substation’ at the special care baby unit of the hospital. The installed politeheart CPAP machine is efficient, easy to operate, algorithm-driven, and has yielded a 100% success rate within the first eight weeks of usage at AKTH Kano.

The substation and the accompanying equipment can easily be adaptable elsewhere, especially where a high incidence rate of RD exists.