Re: "Never trust a 35 weeker"

WoW, I feel lucky to be here! I was born 2 months early "back in the day". I never knew that gestational age was so precarious. I am currently thinking about worrking NICU as a change and a new challenge.

Re: "Never trust a 35 weeker"

That's a very cute discussion!

Re: "Never trust a 35 weeker"

You can't trust ANY neonate!!

Re: "Never trust a 35 weeker"

hello good day to you i newly registered and have appllied in NICU although im not experienced in the field. coz i love babies and i want to learn new things in the field of nursing so i choose NICU to start off my career. ive been in the area for 5 days already. can someone here personal message me who got lots of NICU experience i need help badly thanks

Re: "Never trust a 35 weeker"

Originally Posted by Humbled_Nurse

Wow. You keep them until 40 weeks. That is amazing. Our situation is similar to Gompers. If they are PO feeding well, maintaining temp, and gaining weight consistently then they are out the door and the insurance companies are keeping a watchful eye on their progress and if they meet the criteria then they are asking when are they going home. I've never seen a baby go home on gavage feedings though unless PO feeding was not an option for the baby. I'm not sure at what gestational age we allow them to go home, but I think it is about 35 weeks and sometimes 34 weeks.

That sounds like us for the most part but we have a new policy now where if the baby has met all the discharge criteria but has a "spell" (apnea/bradycardia/desaturation) they have to wait out 7 days before they can go home. If they have one in that time frame the clock reset and they start the countdown all over again.

Re: "Never trust a 35 weeker"

Originally Posted by grlgid

That sounds like us for the most part but we have a new policy now where if the baby has met all the discharge criteria but has a "spell" (apnea/bradycardia/desaturation) they have to wait out 7 days before they can go home. If they have one in that time frame the clock reset and they start the countdown all over again.

Seems like they need to go back on Caffeine and go home on a monitor.

Re: "Never trust a 35 weeker"

Great thread and right on the money with that tag line, prmenrs. I'm planning to appropriate it as my own once I make it to the NICU.

I actually have a great example on video. My daughter was a 27 weeker. By 36 weeks, she was just cruising along, looking cute, eating, growing...A-OK.

One day my wife and I are in there with the video camera, chatting, relaxing, thinking all is grand. In the background, you start to hear one beep louder than all the others. Next thing you see is the nurse's hand come into the scene to stroke her back and remind her that she does need to breathe.

It was a good wake-up call for us before we brought her home.

Boy did I have a love/hate relationship with that O2 saturation monitor.

Re: "Never trust a 35 weeker"

Your are so right. Our unit is experiencing this as I write this. One day growing, kangarooing..next day overwhelming sepsis, on the oscillator, pressors, kidneys shutdown. Even though this situation dosent occur often, it does occur and we are always surprised when it happens. It tells us we should be every vigilant in our assessment..adbominal girth, ngt/ogt residual, lethargy cues. We should not let our guard down when in report we hear the word 'growing premie'.

Re: "Never trust a 35 weeker"

I have to say I haven't been in the NICU long enough to experience a whole lot of feeder/growers getting really sick and coding . . . however what I find a little surprising, we do not admit 35 weekers unless there is another issue. As a standard 35 weeks + does not buy them an automatic ticket into our unit. It is likely because we are filled with 24/25 weekers, d-hernias, NEC, surgical, etc babies that we often do not have room for a 35 weekers who appears to be doing well just after delivery. However, hearing others stories I just wonder about those little 35 weekers who are sent to newborn nursery because we just don't have the room for them.

Re: "Never trust a 35 weeker"

Originally Posted by viccar82

I have to say I haven't been in the NICU long enough to experience a whole lot of feeder/growers getting really sick and coding . . . however what I find a little surprising, we do not admit 35 weekers unless there is another issue. As a standard 35 weeks + does not buy them an automatic ticket into our unit. It is likely because we are filled with 24/25 weekers, d-hernias, NEC, surgical, etc babies that we often do not have room for a 35 weekers who appears to be doing well just after delivery. However, hearing others stories I just wonder about those little 35 weekers who are sent to newborn nursery because we just don't have the room for them.

We don't routinely admit 35 weekers either. Even 33-34 weekers. If they're big enough and have no respiratory issues, then they're usually sent to the continuing care nursery. They do keep a close watch on them though and will keep them until they are ready to go home.