How Long Til' You Felt Comfortable in NICU???

KK7724 · Sep 26, 2005

Hey Guys...
Well, let me tell a little bit of background info about myself....I graduated from Nursing School in May...took boards in June....starting working in Well-Baby Level II (it was all in the same room...just grower feeders) till August...then I moved over to a different hospital in town to work in a Level III Regional NICU....(got the fever...loved the sick babies versus the Wells)....
Okay....so I love my new hospital! We have 4 rooms...Rooms 1 and 2 are our sick ventilator dependent, Nitrous oxide serious kids! Rooms 3 and 4 are grower feeders, stable vents, cpaps, oxygen, IV's, TPN, Lipids...etc.
They have started me out in 3 and 4 with the grower feeders of course...I have done good to be honest...I don't feel lost...it was a matter of getting used to different charting. So, I have done this for the past 3 weeks....now I am moving on to Rooms 1 and 2 for the next 7 weeks to learn the vents and nitrous. I am a little scared...I feel like I know nothing!
I also have a little problem....My fiance' is overseas in Korea and comes back in June 06....he has orders for Charleston, SC. I will have been a nurse for a year by this time and I currently live with roommates that are moving in May....I don't really want to move somewhere for a month and a half then have to move to South Carolina when he gets back. I would love to get a travel assignment and already be up there....the thing is....I don't know if I'll be ready. I know that everyone has their own opinion of travel nurses and I'm really realizing that with the variances in different hospitals, I could be going to another Level III and it be totally different from what I'm used to!
I'm in Alabama and I feel like our unit does a great job of taking care of our babies....but, my options for Charleston are Level II (which I just don't want to do right now in my career) and a Level III that does ECMO (which we don't).....
OKay, so getting to the point of the matter and the original purpose of the post....How long did it take for you to feel "comfortable" on your own taking care of your babies in your Level III NICU's??? Also, advice and opinions on my situation---to travel or not to travel after 1 year???
Thanks for reading and thank you even more for replying!
~Kristina, RN, BSN~

OH! I forgot to say our unit has a 40 bed capacity, we have our own ambulance and transport team...we get babies from all over the middle section of Alabama.....we send surgeries to Birmingham (Children's Hospital). I actually spoke to a nurse we hired who works transport only for us...she came from Children's Hospital in Birmingham, Well, she told me that I will get some GREAT experience from our unit. So, that makes me feel good that she says that coming from Children's where we send all our surgical cases.

KK7724 · Sep 26, 2005

OH! I forgot to say our unit has a 40 bed capacity, we have our own ambulance and transport team...we get babies from all over the middle section of Alabama.....we send surgeries to Birmingham (Children's Hospital). I actually spoke to a nurse we hired who works transport only for us...she came from Children's Hospital in Birmingham, Well, she told me that I will get some GREAT experience from our unit. So, that makes me feel good that she says that coming from Children's where we send all our surgical cases.

Sorry, I keep thinking of things after the fact.... I also wanted to say that after taking NRP and taking a special little certification at the hospital, NICU nurses at our hospital intubate all babies. I was told that most hospitals do not allow this. Is that true??

sunnysideup09 · Sep 26, 2005

At my hospital, the nurses do not intubate the infants. That is a role our NNPs and MDs have. I myself, as a specialty NICU transport nurse, have the privileges to intubate when at a referring hospital. I have intubated only once in our hospital and that was because a NNP was in the middle of a code and the MD was at a delivery.

It took me a year to be fully comfortable taking care of Level 3 infants and attending deliveries of very low birth weight infants.

Christine, RNC, BSN

Sorry, I keep thinking of things after the fact.... I also wanted to say that after taking NRP and taking a special little certification at the hospital, NICU nurses at our hospital intubate all babies. I was told that most hospitals do not allow this. Is that true??

suzanne4, RN · Sep 26, 2005

As a travel nurse in the NICU, most facilities will want three to five years of experience. You are just not going to find a travel position in that specialty with only one year of experience. You do not feel comfortable until that point.

Most hospitals do not permit the staff nurses to intubate. NRP doesn ot prepare you in any way for intubation or for putting lines in, etc. Just like ACLS does not prepare the adult nurse for intubation. I would be truly surprised if every nurse in your NICU is trained to intubate.........perhaps the charge nurse or the clinical nurse specialist, as well as the NNPs, but the regualr staff nurses, no way. There is too much liability in that............

sparkyRN · Sep 26, 2005

I feel like it takes nurses 2 years to really feel comfortable working in NICU. The first year is all about learning and organization. The second year you become more independent as far as anticipating problems, learning to read lab and dealing with the unexpected. I would hesitate trying to travel without 2 years of fulltime experience regardless of what the travel company will accept.

suzanne4, RN · Sep 26, 2005

Just because a travel company will accept, does not mean that a facility will.

Myethpio · Dec 17, 2008

RNs don't intubate at our facility, only MDs and RTs

babyNP., APRN · Dec 17, 2008

Yeah, only MDs, NNPs, and our transport nurses intubate at the hospital where I work.

We have some bedside RNs that will do PICC lines, but that's about it.

I'm getting off orientation in another 6 more weeks, after being on for 15. And, um, glad that I'll have a resource nurse for another month. Eesh!