I am currently taking prerequisites for entrance into a nursing program and feel quite certain I want to work in the NICU. I'm curious how many of you had babies or knew someone closely who had a baby in the NICU and if that influenced your decision to work in the NICU. My son Aaron was born at 24 weeks in March 2004 but sadly only lived 3 days. He died from complications due to a Grade IV IVH. I became pregnant quickly (and unexpectedly-I was on the pill!) and gave birth to my son Cameron in February 2005 at 28 weeks after over a month in the hospital and exhaustive efforts to delay his birth. He came home on oxygen after 9 weeks in the NICU.
I honestly can't imagine working in any other area, although I'm certainly aware that may change.
I love what I do, I hope to never leave. But, some rare days, I do have flashbacks from my daughters short NICU stay and she wasn't life threatening sick either. I definatly have some PTSD going on. A whiff of a blanket or watching a mom hold her baby can set me in tears sometimes. Just a heads up. It did sway me towards working there though. It wasn't as sad a place as I'd been told all through nursing school!
I love what I do, I hope to never leave. But, some rare days, I do have flashbacks from my daughters short NICU stay and she wasn't life threatening sick either. I definatly have some PTSD going on. A whiff of a blanket or watching a mom hold her baby can set me in tears sometimes. Just a heads up. It did sway me towards working there though. It wasn't as sad a place as I'd been told all through nursing school!
Good luck!
Thank you. I fully expect to have that happen. I know it won't be easy. I'm not sure how I'll handle the first loss, particularly, but I'm not even done with school yet so we'll see how it goes. I think while there are some negatives about having been personally involved in the NICU, my experiences there may be able to help others in the future. I hope so, anyway. :)
We have had one nurse who had a 25 weeker before she became a nurse, but several of our own nurses have had their kids in our NICU while they were working there. We have also had 2 nurses leave after losing little ones, they couldn't stand to watch what happened to some of the kids..they were truly standing in the parent's shoes and couldn't be objective anymore
We have had people transfer from adult ICU's because they thought all we did was hold babies and feed them...hey, even normal nursery isn't like that! They beat feet out of their pretty quickly. But most of us happened into NICU and decided it was our place and stayed :)
I hear a lot of that "I want to work in a nursery or on postpartum or whatever unit at X hospital because I want to play with babies all day." I am sooooo glad I am not going into this with that misconception because I know it would be such a disappointment! I love babies and that is what helps to pull me towards NICU, but there is something else that draws me to it - I can't quite explain it - it's just there. I hope I will be as wonderful as the rest of you when I do get there!
I am becoming a nurse because of my experiences in having children. My first was an emergency c at 35 weeks. Both of us were at the end due to my moron doctor who "didn't know" I had toxemia. Knowing what I do now after all my studies and talking to nurses since, we were too close to even talk about, especially him. He had NO fluid, heart decelerations, blood shunting to the head, intermittent blood flow kept going only by his heart and the hugest surprise of it all - down syndrome. WELCOME TO MOTHERHOOD!!! I did not like my nurses (on the day of my discharge I was asked aren't I forgetting the baby was by my nurse I'd had for three days ) did NOT like the doctors in the NICU AT ALL, did NOT like some of the nures there (the ones who would tube all his feeds because he "couldn't do it" Really? No, they were just lazy. Three days out of the hospital the tube was out, thank you VERY much!) but LOVED three of them. I will never, ever forget them as long as I live. One outwardly cried when I held him for the first time and told him how much I loved him and I would fix this for him, just give me time to figure it out. One basically told the doctor to go blow in a pc way during one of his attacks (He was the jerk who told me my son might not live, had TOF, imperforate orifice, insufficient intestines meaning colostomy or possibly incompatible with life and oh by the way, downs, too, like it was a death sentance. Yes, he has DS, but the rest was all innacurate - he's never had so much as an ear infection 3 years later!) One would sit and talk with us about a lot of nothing that meant everything. Every minute didn't need to be a huge drama. My son was stable, healthy as a horse and on only a nutrient drip and a room air cannula - not bad for a preemie born on the verge of death. She always put him to bed and made sure he had his stuffed puppy draped over him so he wasn't alone. NONE of the nurses I adore had a child in a NICU. One never even had kids. I think it's in you or it's not, but some of us have to get the big flashing sign put in front of us to relize we whould have done this in the first place!
That's so sad. My wonderful experiences with both my Doctor and my nurses when I had my children are what initially sparked my interest in NICU. I had the most wonderful, caring, compassionate doctor as well as the sweetest, most loving and intimately kind nurses on the planet! Of course, my kids were both big and healthy, but I did suffer from toxemia (well kept under control thanks to my incredible doctor) with my first pregnancy and a surprise entrance to the world from my second one (barely - and I mean BARELY made it to the hospital before she was born). All of the compassion and care that I received made me think, "Wow - I want to do this for somebody else, this is incredible!" - that merged into my dream of one day working in a NICU. :)
My 6y/o son was in the NICU. He was 36 weeks but he had PPHN. He was very ill and at times we were very close to loosing him. During that time I was in my nursing clinicals so my experience definetly had an effect on my choice of area to work. I love working in the NICU, but honestly it has been a hard journey. The first couple of years working the NICU were challenging.... It created a lot of emotions that I had to work through. In the long run it has all been worth it! Sometimes when parents are having a difficult time I talk to them and share my experience and it seems to help them to know that I was in their shoes once. In a sense it has been therapuetic for myself and for the parents. Good luck!
I am a second year rpn student and I am very intersted in working in NICU.Like many of you I have had my own personal experience with NICU.My first daughter was born at 24 weeks and the nurses couldn't have been more supportive.I would like to be able to give that support to someone else some day.
I was lucky and my daughter is a perfectly healthy, straight-A 13 y.o.I do wonder if I could handle seeing little ones that are not as lucky or if it would be too much to handle.
I'm another one pulled to the NICU. I start nursing school this fall and I have had it in my head that I'm either working NICU or PICU after graduation. I don't know what it is that is pulling me, but I know I want to work with either really sick babies or children. I know it will be tougher than a regular med-surg floor, and I know that it will be emotionally draining, but I also know it's what I want. Seeing one co-worker go through having his babies in the NICU and also now seeing a former co-worker deal with his child's cancer have really made the spark ignite more, too. I hope we all get to realize our dreams! :)
My nephew was born at 24 weeks at 1 lb 4oz. Three weeks later my mom tells me he has an infection and that he has blood in his stool. What does this mean?
I am not sure. He is in Toronto at either Mt Sinai or St Micheals. I am in Phili.
I am graduating in May and plan on applying to the only NICU in my area this coming month. I have no previous experience in the NICU because unfortunately we have no clinical rotations there and they do not allow us to do our senior preceptorship in a NICU. I have always known in my heart this is what I wanted to do however I can't pin down exactly why I want to, I know I love babies and I look forward to caring for critically ill babies and supporting their families through it. Lately, I have been thinking about how to word why I want to work there but I just can't seem to pin it down to a couple sentences.
fergus51
6,620 Posts
Well I stayed there for 18 days while they waited for my adoption to go through (I was healthy)... Maybe that's what drew me to the area as a nurse;)