first day in nicu

TraumaICURN · Mar 18, 2007

tomorrow is my first day in the nicu. i'm finally getting nervous. i left med surg forever! i'm basically doing paper work for 8 hours my first day but i still nervous. i feel like i have something to prove. my old boss tried to discourage my new boss from hiring me. my old boss has "blocked" several people from leaving our unit. she treats us like were nothing but doesn't want to get rid of us. if we were truly bad wouldn't she want to get rid of us? fire us let us transfer ect. well i glad to leave that badly run unit. and i hope the skills i learned succeeding in that chaos will help me in the nicu. do all nicu's have the transmitter things to help you place iv's? wish me luck!

even though she treats her staff like crap, that doesn't mean that she still doesn't need them to staff her unit! evidentally, as long as she can maintain her nurse to patient ratio, she doesn't care how she treats her staff.

twinkletoes53 · Mar 21, 2007

tomorrow is my first day in the nicu. i'm finally getting nervous. i left med surg forever! i'm basically doing paper work for 8 hours my first day but i still nervous. i feel like i have something to prove. my old boss tried to discourage my new boss from hiring me. my old boss has "blocked" several people from leaving our unit. she treats us like were nothing but doesn't want to get rid of us. if we were truly bad wouldn't she want to get rid of us? fire us let us transfer ect. well i glad to leave that badly run unit. and i hope the skills i learned succeeding in that chaos will help me in the nicu. do all nicu's have the transmitter things to help you place iv's? wish me luck!

you have my best wishes. you deserve to be in a position where your skills and hard work are appreciated. i have been in nicu for over 25 years, and haved loved everything about it.

we do have iv locators in our unit. they are called transilluminators. we have 2 small portable ones that can be carried from bed to bed, and 2 larger ones that are attahed to a pole and can be wheeled around the unit. the larger ones tend to give out a bit more heat, and are used by our docs. or nnps to place arterial lines and transilluminate chests when looking for a pneumothorax.

i am curious as to how long your formal orientation will be. in our hospital, any new hire to our unit without prior nicu experience is precepted for a total of 10 weeks. that doesn't include 2 weeks of "baby core", which are classes taught by our clinical instructor or senior nurses. they cover the very basics of nicu nursing (e.g. rds, ivh, vents., abg interpretaiton, thermoregulation, sepsis)

newnicurn · Mar 22, 2007

my orientation is 12 weeks. i also have to take a newborn course, critical care course, and nrp course. my head is swamped with all the math calculations; medications, daily intake ect. but i see all the nurses that had no rn expierence successfully working in the nicu, so i with expierence can do it to. i also need to brush up on my abg interpretation. my old unit didn't have ventilators.

palesarah · Mar 22, 2007

congrats on the new job! I hope it goes well for you. Sounds like they have a good orientation in place.

newnicurn · Mar 26, 2007

today i completed my first week in the nicu. 3/23/07 i felt like a new nurse again. it is completely different from my old unit. it's a quiet, friendly environment. all the staff including the doctors are nice. everyone takes the time to explain things to you. there is a lot of math in the nicu. everything is based on weight. volume per day, kg/cc/24 hours. my orientation is 12 weeks long with a newborn course, critical care course, neonatal resuscitation program. i had two patients. during orientation they want me to do one 12 hour shift and 3 8 hour shifts a week. it weird now that i'm on a different unit i have more energy at home. i used to collapse in bed after working, wouldn't go out after work, go in early the day before work if i was out (3pm). after orientation i'll go back to 3 12's. the orientation helps with continuation of care. you have the same patients every morning. all i can do is sing praises. it's also weird to take bathroom and meal breaks.

Ladybug7 · Mar 28, 2007

Congratulations. I am considering changing my specialty to neonatal ICU. Thanks for the insight.

MK6babies · Apr 6, 2007

Congrats newnicurn! Hope you do well! Don't be nervous, you will do great!

nursecave · Apr 15, 2007

I just started NICU on 4/2/07 after 6 years of Mother Baby. It is really different, but I like it so far. Good luck to you. I too came from a boss who treats staff horrible. She blocked my transfer inititially and then laughed at me to my face and bragged about holding me back. She has seen me in the hall since the transfer and has sneered at me and called me a traitor. Things are so bad that the whole staff is thinking about putting in for transfers just to get human resources attention that something is terribly wrong there. It is so sad that what should be the happiest unit in the hospital ( Mother Baby) is so miserable. I left not because of her, but because I have always wanted NICU, I just couldn't work there until I finished my RN, they don't hire LPN's. So, I finished last May, and am just now getting released to go...........