Cardiac tele to NICU- any warnings/advice?

[crystal9308]

Hello! Ive been a nurse for two years on a very critical and busy cardiac floor. I’ve always wanted to be in the NI, but wanted to get some basic experience first and today I finally got the call I’ve been waiting for and accepted a job offer at a level 3 NICU!! I’m excited and nervous as to be expected... but was wondering if there were any other medsurg to nicu nurses out there that can give advice or any heads up on major things that will be different. Obviously I know it’s an entirely different world in the NI, but if there was anything that stood out to you I’d love to hear it just so I can try to mentally prepare for the change!!

thanks so much!!

[adventure_rn, MSN, NP]

The main thing I'd recommend is to look back through the archives for this forum--this question comes up a lot, and you'll probably find a wealth of information if you do some digging.

The main piece of advice you'll get is to mentally prepare yourself to feel like a new grad again. NICU is a whole different animal from 99% of nursing, and there's a steep, very specific learning curve. That said, it's totally ok (and normal) to feel kind of incompetent at the beginning, but it's entirely worth it.

[RNlove]

That’s so amazing! I’m glad you followed your passion for NICU, I also have considered switching over to NI after working in adult cardiac. You will have a steep learning curve but you already have experience with the “nursing stuff” med passing, assessment, arrhythmia interpretation, time management. So the learning would be NI diagnosis, specific assessment. Hope your transition is going well.