do babies frequent your PICU?

LoveMyBugs, BSN, CNA, RN · Feb 20, 2016

Depends on where you work.

I work at a children's hospital on a level 1 trauma center.

We get sick babies...it is RSV season right now, and our PICU and floor units are full of babies on high flow O2.

we also have cardiac babies, NAT and anything else you can think of. We just don't do transplants.

If they are under 28 days we try and send to the NICU if they do not have RSV, but our NICU rarley takes a baby from the ED unless it is a home birth gone bad.

Other hospitals in my area that have a peds floor, but not pediatric specialties do not have as critical kids as we do.

All depends

Are you wanting to work with neonates and care for them over an extended time?

That is more NICU some babies can be there for up to 6 months or more.

Or all age ranges of critically ill children? Then that would be PICU

tinybbynurse · Feb 20, 2016

Well I fell in love with NICU at some point ...just applied but didn't get past the phone interview so I'm trying my hand at other children specialties in hopes to either transfer or find out I like PICU/PEDS better.

The hospital I'd be applying to has a level III NICU and level I trauma center, an inpatient peds floor, and a PICU. if that makes any difference in patient population.

LoveMyBugs, BSN, CNA, RN · Feb 20, 2016

Apply to any peds position, if the hospital is anything like mine you will end up floating to NICU.

I started out on a peds floor for school age/teens and after 6 months started getting orientation in the infant/toddler then PICU and then NICU.

Once you float there they will get to know you when you apply there.

What is it that you love about NICU?

Just curious....floated there and hated it. Felt like it could get very routine if you were always on feeder/grower and all inexperienced nurses are feeder/grower.....but that is me....I am in the peds ED where I see a little bit of everything

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Feb 20, 2016

Most PICUs will see children of all ages, from hours-to-days-old all the way to the 17-18-year-olds. If the hospital does peds cardiac surgery, you might see a lot of infants. And season variations exist, as was pointed out. During the winter a lot of PICU patients will be infants and toddlers with respiratory viruses. Most non-accidental trauma (NAT) patients are infants or toddlers. I'm just doing a little census in my head of my 26 bed unit. We have 10 cardiac surgical beds; when I left yesterday morning there were 8 CV patients and none of them were over the age of 2. Of our 16 general PICU beds, we had 11 patients: 2 teenagers, 1 pre-teen, 1 preschooler and the rest were infants or toddlers.

Nurses in the PICU and ED have the broadest scope of practice of all nurses. We see anything and everything... except the elderly, of course. NICU patients tend to fall into a fairly narrow range of diagnoses: prematurity +/- RDS, birth injury, congenital anomalies, metabolic disorders, neonatal abstinence syndrome... that's pretty much it. I lasted 2 years, but mainly because jobs were scarce. At our hospital no one floats to NICU (except PICU - we're treated like we're idiots) and no one from NICU floats anywhere else.

offlabel · Feb 21, 2016

Agree with all the above (especially the part about the way peds ICU nurses are treated in the NI) except this:

Nurses in the PICU and ED have the broadest scope of practice of all nurses. We see anything and everything....

Seeing and doing are two different things when 'scope of practice' is concerned. Big city ICU nurses 'do' far more 'stuff' and make more independent decisions than big city ER nurses. I've been both. PICU as well, and I think, on the whole, barring flight nurses, adult ICU nurses make more critical decisions and interventions than anyone else, PICU coming in a close second.

jpicurn · Feb 21, 2016

In our PICU, winter/RSV/resp season we see lots of babies. Most of our patients are under a year old at any given time; that being said, spring/summer, we see lots of traumas and teenage girl overdoses. So it's always a little bit of everything. In our hospital, we are "partner" units with pediatrics and NICU, so we can get pulled/floated to both depending on census. In the NICU, we most often get feeder/growers who don't have an IV, aren't on oxygen, and very few meds. On peds, everything is fair game.

PICU is rewarding and you get to see and do a lot. I have learned a ton by working here, and every day, I see or learn something new. Almost always. So that part is good. I am to the point in my career where I would relish a little boring now and then, and in the PICU, there is nothing boring and nothing stress-free.

GL!

tinybbynurse · Feb 21, 2016

Thanks guys! Based on all of your insight, I can now say I feel like I could definitely enjoy PICU and will Def look out for positions there in addition to the in patient peds. While so far my goal is NICU, I know that I'll be close to, if not just as happy anywhere with children in the meantime and like I said, along the way I can discover if I actually like peds/PICU better, and if not either will be a great stepping stone or connection to NICU.

It makes me so happy to think about applying to any of those!! So far I only see a prn inpatient peds position, and i really need FT, and no PICU ones at the moment, But the hospital I'm looking at updates jobs daily so I'll be on the lookout! Thanks all of you!

Julius Seizure · Feb 21, 2016

Once you get peds experience you could even consider working as a float pool nurse, and then you could work in all the different areas :)

adpiRN · Feb 21, 2016

Float pool is my goal!

tinybbynurse · Feb 23, 2016

Janey496....you're so right!!! How did I never think of that?! That'd be awesome!

Zelda, RN · Mar 3, 2016

I work at a children's hospital, just started last month. Our floor sees everything, though our specialities are kidney, liver, and rehab. The respiratory kids get sent to any open bed. My youngest pt was a 12 day old viral bronchiolitis - she was there for a week while we weaned her off oxygen (stubborn little girl hung on to 0.06L forever). We take kids up to 22-23 years old if they're an established pt. I love it. I always knew I wanted to do the little people, too.