Giving Nursing Students a Taste of NICU

I have to say, I am and always have been petrified of babys. When taking pediatrics, I made sure that I was the last one to spend the day in NICU. I tried to weasel my way out of it the best I could, but to no avail. I am a male RN and I don't know if other guys have this problem but I am so scared of holding an infant, let alone a neonate. The nurses thought that my reaction to the neonates was the funniest thing in the world. They are just so tiny, and I am so scared of hurting them. My biggest fear is dropping one. I cant imagine what I would do if god forbid that happened. Anyone else have this problem? How can I get over my fear of children, I know eventually I will have to, as I am aspiring to be an ER nurse!!??

Too true, I recently finished my ob rotation and I only got to go to the NICU once, I asked my instructor every AM if I could go to NICU.. and yet I was placed in postpartum/mother-baby, or delivery room, all good, but to me nothing is better than ICU/NICU

to the nurses at my NICU for welcoming nursing students during their OB rotation!

Since I work fulltime in L&D at the hospital at the same hospital I teach clinicals, I know the staff and routines.
My peers welcomed the students and put them right to work. Every student wanted to be a NICU nurse after their time in the unit!

I think I'll go thank the NICU nurses again! Bye!

I truly enjoyed the time I worked in NICU. I was an LPN at the time and my first time there I tried to escape out the door when I found out I was not on their schedule. The charge nurse literally grab my arm and told me she was sure she would find my name somewhere. You see I walked into C-phase and all the fear you all have talked about washed over me. As it was it turned out to be one of the most rewarding experiences I have had in my career and it was due to nurses such as you all and I thank-you for all your efforts for any frighten soul that comes through your doors.

TuTonka

It is so wonderful to hear an RN in the NICU to want to teach students and have them enjoy their time in that area. When I did my round there, I left feeling like I was not wanted and would never be invited back there again. It was exactly as you stated, I was dropped off, assigned to a Nurse that wanted nothing to do with me and did not speak to me unless I asked her a questions and with that I would only get a few words from her. I went in there wanting to learn so much and when I left, I wanted to be anything other than that Nurse I had that day. I would never want someone leaving after having me as a Preceotor and thinking the way I did when I left. Kodos to you and I wish there were more people that had your enthusiasm!!

3 years ago, I had never heard of NICU. I have now worked in the unit for 2.5 years and have loved every moment I have spent with these littlest patients. I will be graduating in June and was sure that if I worked hard, I would at least have the opportunity to apply for one of the few new grad positions they have in July. In March, I learned that there would be no new grads hired in July, and possibly not at all this year.

My heart is broken. I will move on and I will learn to love whatever dept. I end up in. But I believe that one way or the other (as a volunteer cuddler?) I will get back to my little buddies.

As a student, I am saddend by the stories I hear from some of my classmates about their NICU experiences. I know that not everyone enjoys students, but everyone was a student once. When I hear stories of wonderful experiences of time spent in "my" NICU, I make sure that I send a thank you note to the nurse.

As a student, I can learn something from every nurse I shadow. Sometimes, I learn how not to behave.

Thank you all for supporting the nurses of the future.

Ha ha...you sounds like at least half the dads in our unit. It's one of my personal joys to help dads past this fear, and I haven't had one yet who didn't love holding once he actually got up the guts to do it. I can promise you, just like I promise them, that you will not drop them. Unless you're planning on trying juggle or something! Instead, you'll get to enjoy that little one snuggling right in and being at complete peace in your arms. So start easy with just plain old holding. When you become an ER nurse, you'll progress to doing lots of other things with these little kiddos besides just holding, so now is a great time to start getting comfortable!

i recently completed my 3rd semester in nursing, the OB/Peds semester. i had 4 rotations in NICU, and was blessed to have some great nurses who were willing to share their experiences and knowledge with me. they were patient and patiently explained procedures, look up labs, imparted thier wisdom, all the while treating me with respect. i am grateful to the wonderful caring NICU nurses that were so kind to me and contributed immensly to my education.

Wow...great post! I hope I am lucky enough to be assigned a preceptor with your attitude. I will be starting my nursing program this fall and I already know I want to work in the NICU. Ever since I've made that decision, I've sought opportunities to get my foot into the atmosphere. I work at a children's hospital but as an office coordinator in one of their research buildings. But I recently saw a posting for a split position (60 admin / 40 clinical) at their special babies clinic that I of course applied for (I also am a grad of a medical assisting program so I do have some clinical background), and I hope that I get. And I'll be volunteering in the NICU beginning in the next couple weeks. I'm SO excited!

I had to fight hard to get time in a NICU as a student. This included changing out of the clinical group I had been in for three semesters, to another group as my original group didn't go to hospitals with a NICU. Even after that was accomplished (difficult, as this division of clinical groups was the dissertation-in-progress of a school admin), I then had to excel at my first three weeks on general ICU clinical to earn the chance for a ten-week final clinical practicum in the NICU. I did all of the above, and had a very positive experience, which ultimately led to my hiring in that unit upon graduation.

I am now on night shift, but spent some time on day shift. After I got over some of my new-nurse jitters, I would always grab the nursing students (often abandoned as Steve describes above) and show them my patients if no one else was giving them any attention (and the day shift crew has more than a few "nurse-cannibals", if you get my drift). Even as a night shifter, if I am out of report early and there are students around I'll get them started scrubbing and looking at the kiddos while the day shift gets ready to start (read: having a cup of coffee and yakking in the break room until 07:35...yeah, I know, petty day/night shift trash talk, can't help it, sorry).

It's fun to show a student things, especially as you know that if they are in the NICU they almost definitely worked hard to get that one day. Helps refresh my own wonder to see their reaction to a <26 weeker, or a catatonic nuero kid, or a beautiful drug baby screaming like a banshee and sweating bullets, etc.

So yeah, no matter how burned I get with nursing, helping out the motivated and interested student is still a blast (and that goes for med students, RT, PT, etc as well).