Considering NICU as a new career path...

[whoaitschrista]

I have been a RN for 4 years. I have experience in cardiac care with adults, and 3 years in an outpatient surgery clinic. I have recently started looking for a job and have thought about trying NICU. It is very different than what I already know, but I do take care of children after surgery. Could someone tell me the difference in working in Adult ICU and NICU? I am concerned about the pace that I currently work versus the pace of NICU. Our patients are healthy and stable, unless there are airway issues with anesthesia. Also my workload is light. Also is there a personality difference in the nurses that work in Adult ICU versus NICU? I am becoming more confident and aggressive as a nurse, but sometimes I question things or double check things. I am afraid of making mistakes! How is the orientation process? Do they usually do alot of teaching for someone who has no pediatric or labor/delivery experience?

[NeoNurseTX, RN]

NICU is ICU nursing so many of the patients are not stable. You will usually have 2-3 patients depending on acuity. I've worked in adult ICUs as a "student nurse associate" (AKA glorified tech) and both NICU and adult ICU have a lot of anal nurses...which is a good thing! Of course you'll come across your lazy nurse here and there, like with all floors.

Orientation differs depending on your unit/hospital.

There is a LOT of teaching involved as we usually keep patients until they are discharged. Commonly a length of stay can number into months and some kids have their first bday in the NICU. Many go home with special needs that the parents will have to be taught about. Depending on staff available to your unit, you may be doing breastfeeding teaching.

[NICU_babyRN, BSN, RN]

If there is a NICU at your hospital I would strongly encourage you to approach the unit director and talk about shadowing for a day. It is a challenging and stimulating environment if you are in a level 3+ NICU and you can have a baby "flip" any minute. Specially your micros who will honeymoon for a few days and then almost die within an hour.

You can have patients on 10+ drips, and multiple consulting services at your bedside and still have to find time to keep the poor parents updated. I wouldn't trade my NICU position for many other things out there.

Go shadow for a day and see how you like it! When you do shadow, ask if you can please see some micros and intensive care settings-don't get stuck to shadow in an intermediate NICU where it is most of the time stable and busy work (with lots of parents) but not a lot of ICU interventions.