Clinical
NCLEX-RN Newborn Jaundice Clock Cheat Sheet (Free Printable)
Free NCLEX-RN newborn jaundice clock cheat sheet — printable study guide for nursing students. Every fact verified against authoritative sources.
With newborn jaundice, the clock matters as much as the symptoms, and this cheat sheet lays out the whole timeline in one view: why yellow skin in the first 24 hours is pathologic and needs workup and phototherapy right away, when physiologic jaundice shows up around days 2 to 4 and clears within 2 weeks, how breast-feeding jaundice in the first week differs from breast-milk jaundice after day 7, and why jaundice lasting past 2 weeks means rethinking the cause. It ends with when to treat - based on the bilirubin level, how fast it is rising, and gestational age - plus the danger signs: a very tired baby who feeds poorly, or yellow spreading from the face to the chest, belly, legs, and soles.
The NCLEX tests this because each day-of-life window points to a different cause and a different response, and mixing them up changes what you do next. Use the sheet as a sequence: match the baby's age in days to the stage, and learn the two critical windows - first-day yellow and yellow past 2 weeks. Treatment thresholds vary by gestational age, level, and speed of rise, so follow your facility's bilirubin protocol.
Word count: 194.
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Treatment thresholds vary by gestational age, level, and speed of rise - follow your facility's bilirubin protocol.
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