[PriceNCRN]

Just want to vent. I am in the 10th week of my NICU orientation and I am a new grad. I have always wanted to be a NICU nurse and now I know first hand that it is what I want to do. The problem is that I am red/green color deficient and I happened to mention it to my preceptor the other day. Now I can see colors, I just have problems with some shades and actually naming the color sometimes, but I can see when an infant has redness at IV site, or blanching with a flush. It can see when an infant turns blue, ruddy, dusky, or pale. Sometimes if it is a slight change in color I have a problem, but if in doubt I always ask another RN for their opinion. The problem was with a UAC on the day I mentioned I was color deficient. The infant had vascular compromise after a lab draw (resolved with no probs after removing UAC). My preceptor was no in the room when I was doing the draw and being new and only having had one UAC patient before I totally forgot about watching for white out or duskiness in feet and toes. Well she comes in after I was done and looks at infant and sees toes and feet on one side have white areas and proceeds to turn dusky. She then called me over to look and asked if I saw the white areas and I said no. She then asked if I saw the dusky areas and I said no, but I did see the areas on the towes and pedal surface of the foot that had changed to a sort of brownish color and I pointed them out. She went and told the PCM that she was their during the procedure and that I could not see the color change. I did see the dusky areas and didn't see the white out because I wasn't looking for them. If she would have been there she could have reminded me to watch for it. Now I have to go to Occupational health and be evaluated again. I can see that I am going to loose my job even though everyone thinks I do great work and have told me so. Because how can they test if I can see color changes in an infant, all they can do is give me another color blind test, which I already failed when they hired me. Oh well, just venting, Need to start looking for a new position

[nicudaynurse]

That's a tough situation.

The first priority is going to be patient safety and if you are unable to see some color changes that could be a threat to safety. I guess the question is did you not see the blanching on the infant with the UAC because you weren't looking for it or did you just not see it. I know I have seen some infants blanch from their peripheral art. lines, and it was hard to miss (scared the crap out of me). As in any patient care area it is important to be able to see subtle color changes in your patient and the babies in the NICU seem to like to do that a lot.

By what you have decribed your color blindness seems mild and it didn't seem to be affecting patient care until the situation with the UAC came up. If you truly believe that your color blindness isn't getting in the way of safe patient care I would do all you can to defend yourself to stay in your current position.

Good luck and hang in there!!

[Todd SPN]

I suffer the same. Because I do, I know that you can distinguish the coloring you need to in your job. People not affected by this condition don't understand, but assume they know. You are getting a raw deal.

[Rapheal]

My father was "color blind" and he told me that he did see the colors red and green, but they were not typically what a non "color blind" person saw as red or green. He could however make the distinction of color. From what you say this seems to be alot like your situation. You see the color change but just in a different way. I suggest that you explain it to your employer the way you explained it in this post. I think you need to be evaluated on recognizing the color changes in infants, not just the standard color test. Could you suggest this? I wish you luck and hope that this works out for the best.