A Couple Questions..

]-How many days a week do you work (which days),and how do you make time for your family?

]- How much interaction do you actually have with your baby?

]-What would I do for schooling..(community college, university, 2 year, 4 year...)

]- What traits must you possess for this career?

]- How many years of schooling did you go through?

]- How much interaction do you have between your baby and its family?

]- Can you start off in the NICU, or must you work your way up?

]- Do you love your job and the people in your unit?

Hi!

I'm happy to answer some!

I work 3 days each week. 3 12hr shifts from 7a-7p. I don't have family so I can't help you on that part. In my unit, we self-schedule. So I work the days that I schedule myself on for the most part w/o any changes by the management who of course checks the schedule to make sure the right number and level of experience nurses are on the schedule for each day. I also work every 3rd weekend. When I work the weekend, I work two less days during m-f.

School: I would say 95% of the 160 nurses on my unit are BSN prepared nurses. I did a 4yr nursing program.

Traits: Fast-paced, quick thinker, patient, empathetic, caring, that's just ot name a few...ohhh, TIME-ORIENTED.

interaction: I have interaction with my babies all the time. In my unit we draw our own labs and start our own IVs. Many places have IV teams and Phlebotomists. Family is a different story: Some familes are at the bedside all the time, some families disappear! I have a good amount of interaction, and we have 24/7 open visitation on my unit. When the parents are around, we really encourage them to participate in cares, kangaroo-care, and we do a lot of family conferences. We also want parents to participate in rounds.

-You can start in the NICU. Positions are sometimes hard to come by.

I LOVE my job! I like those i work with too!

]Hey arw10x!

] Like Addy NICU, I only worked 3 days a week, 12hrs/day. Right now, I'm working 7a-7p, but will switch to nights in April because all new RN's have to rotate days and nights the first 6 months. I'm only 23, and I'm not married yet so teh scheduling is not a problem for me. New orientees in NICU are in orientation for 20 weeks, so our educator makes our schedule and she's great! we are basically self-scheduling because she is that flexible when we ask for days off, ect.

]2. Our NICU ration is 2pt :1RN, sometimes 1pt :1RN or 1pt :2RN depending on the baby's condition (I work in a Level III NICU). So you can see, interaction is the baby is ALWAYS! =)

]3. There are approximatley 50 nurses on my unit and i would guess 75% have a ADN...I just graduated in Dec. with a BSN

]4. Traits: same as what Addy NICU listed...and so much more!

]5.Interactions b/w baby and family: There are some parents that stay with their baby pretty much everyday, or they come during their lunch break, after work or whenever they have time. If they are not physically there, they 'll call , so its good to have a relationship with them. I have met some babies who have been in the NICU for weeks and their parents have only visited maybe twice because they live to far, they don't have the transportation, hoem situations, ect.

]6.you can defintely start in NICU...its a great place to work and i would defintly recommend it...the RN's that i have worked with are all so nice...they help one another out and just look out for one another and the parents, just like one big family! =) good luck! hope this helps!

]-How many days a week do you work (which days),and how do you make time for your family?

]- How much interaction do you actually have with your baby?

]-What would I do for schooling..(community college, university, 2 year, 4 year...)

]- What traits must you possess for this career?

]- How many years of schooling did you go through?

]- How much interaction do you have between your baby and its family?

]- Can you start off in the NICU, or must you work your way up?

]- Do you love your job and the people in your unit?

*I'd be happy to answer as many of your questions as I can. In a 2week period I work 7 days (3days 1 week & 4 days the other week,thats full time 80hrs). I work 3rd shift & don't have kids, so I don't have to really make time for a family like a mother would. I just make time for my immediate family, boyfriend, & dog. You get through it & will figureout how to manage your time. It's not quiet as tough for me b/c I have less to juggle.

*It varies on the interaction I have with my babies. If they are very critical & don't tolerate handling them I'm obviously not going to be handling them much. We get in with our babies AT LEAST every 3-4hours, so I have at least that much interaction with them. If they are doing fairly well I'm going to have time to hold them & such. Especially if I'm not busy.

*You could get your degree from a community college or university. it really doesn't matter. I got mine from a university which means I got a Bach degree. I did 4yrs of college.

*Personally I think that you have to possess any traits that you would for a nurse. I'm not sure that this job takes much different than any other nursing job, but what would I know. I've never been any other kind of nurse. You just have to know how to talk to parents, kind, compassion, caring, etc etc. Those are things I think any nurse SHOULD have. You would have plenty of interaction with family & baby. Some families don't get involved so the nurses become the babies family. Usually NICU is very new to the parents so they ask a lot of questions & need a lot of answeres. Very understandable!

* It depends on your unit on if you can start out right into the NICU. In my unit we were alllowed to start out in the NICU so here I am! :)

* I do love my job. It's very rewarding & at times heartbreaking. You become very attached to these kiddos & the families to you. A parent once said that they didn't feel like their family could really understand but did feel like the nurses could so that was one of the reasons why they bonded so well to the nurses. I love what I do. No I don't particularly care for ALL the people I work with. Some people have been here so long I think they are stuck in a rut & forget what it's like to be a new grad or don't accept changes well. A lot of complainers, but other people are amazingly smart & great mentors that I look up to.