Best way to get to NICU?

[vintage_RN, BSN, RN]

Hello!!

I am an RPN (Canada) in an adult inpatient surgical/oncology setting. It's quite fast paced and acute, and I definitely have learned a lot of valuable skills!

I am currently in school completing my BscN and once I become an RN I would really like to go to the NICU, this is something I've been interested in since I did a volunteer placement in the NICU many years ago.

I was wondering, is it going to be harder for me to get into the NICU now that I have experience and are "set in my ways" so to speak with the adult population? All I know are the way to do things with adults, but I realize that I would need to put all of that knowledge aside and be willing to learn and "be molded" to a completely different way of nursing. Do you think my experience as an adult surgical nurse will be an asset or a hindrance to me going to the NICU? Any suggestions on what I can do to better prepare myself or make myself stand out? Thank you! :)

[karnicurnc, MSN, APRN, CNS]

The skills you have learned as a nurse working with adults (time management, prioritizing, teamwork, working with difficult patients, etc) will translate nicely to a NICU position. The rest of your adult knowledge (meds, treatments, etc) will not, but that is ok, since you should receive some type of orientation to the unit. In my unit you would get about 10 weeks. Good luck!

[Baby Wrangler]

I also work in a Canadian NICU, and quite a number of our nurses have adult population experience. I myself worked NICU straight out of school but our unit hires nurses with adult experience too. I think that like the previous poster said, time management and teamwork are very important in NICU and your previous experience is an asset. During the interview, they will definitely ask you why you worked adult surg/onc first if you wanted to do nicu, and what made you want to do the switch at this point in time, so just make sure you prepare an answer for that. Good luck! :)

[vintage_RN, BSN, RN]

Thank you so much!