Newborn Nursery

Are you wanting term newborn nursery or preemie?

I agree with Kday that there is no better place to be than in the Nursery, either well-baby or NICU. What makes it so awesome is that you, the nurse, are the first person to put your hands on and assess a brand new life. You're part cheer-leader for the parents, and part detective (determining whether the baby is indeed OK). You're first assessment of the baby's health is SOOO important!

In well-baby, you will spend most of your time teaching. That is also a critical part of NICU nursing. You'll learn some advanced skills in the NICU such as IV starts, art. sticks, blood draws, vent management, etc. There is definitely a certain satisfaction that comes with mastering these technical aspects of care, but the low-tech teaching, family support, and yes, rocking are still the best aspects of the NICU.

Good luck to you. I hope you find what you want!:)

I also love the newborn nursery. In a level II you will have corpaks, monitoring, IV antibiotics, billi lights, drug exposed newborns and still get to encourage and teach parents. Also the NBN is usually a social hub, lots of people coming in and out... very fun.

But if you have those big windows, it can feel like you are putting on a puppet show at times.

NEWBORN NURSERY!!

I LOVE IT! Just started maternal/child in a small hospital. I get the best (and worst) of all. My first love when I started was L&D, then I got the chance to work in the nursery. I love the healthy newborns, but when I went on call for "bad baby call", we got one. The adrenaline was amazing! Also, those newborns can handle just about anything! Most are so resilient! Had a thick meconium precip. Intubated, stabilized, and shipped him to UAB.

After a really bad week, I enjoy a routine night now and then in newborn. Then when it's been slow, I enjoy the adrenaline of a potential problem. We don't have a NICU, but I have requested a shadowing experience with an affiliate hospital in Montgomery at Baptist.

The nice thing about a small hospital, is that we get to experience a little of it all. On most nights we get to choose where we want to work that night. This helps prevent burn-out I think, being able to float from nursery, L&D, and PP. However, we do occasionally get those attitudes flaring! I have run into a lot of those in the past 2 weeks. Recuperating with 4 days off right now! Of course they called me to come in last night at 10pm. I didn't answer the phone.

We have a wonderful pediatrician as well as a locum tenens ped that fills in every other weekend. We have had some interesting peds cases too. Did I mention that our area is also peds? Alot of experience in a small hospital. Something you might want to consider!

Happy nursing!

Lisa :)

I have been working with the newborn for 9 years now......there is no other job I would rather do than newborns...........newborns is a speciality like any other field of nursing..........I wish I had a dime for every video camera and someone's photo album I have been in.........we just opened our new L&D, PP, and Nursery units and it is gorgeous.....we have these huge windows and I have a new respect for the animals at the zoo........sometimes we say " smile yall maybe someone will throw us some peanuts"......lol...........I value all my experience that I have in assessing the newborn.....I feel like I can spot a GBBS baby a mile away............Thanks,

Sherry

I love the newborn nursery too. I think our newborn nursery is a little different from most. We start IV's and administer fluids sometimes, I do art sticks, antibiotics and still admit well newborns. It gets to be too much at times but I love it. My skills have grown and i wouldn't want to work in any other area. I love it mostly because I'm usually in there by myself and I can control that environment:D Plus I don't have to deal the baby-mama-drama outside of the nursery. Babies are the best!