any good books?

[acerila]

So I'm pretty new to NICU. Graduated in May, went straight to the NICU and been there for about 6 months. In school, everything we learned was centered around adults, I don't feel like I have the greatest resources at work and at this point I'm just learning as I go & I try to look up and ask questions about anything I don't know that's new (I do feel like I know nothing). I know experiance is a big part of things but I do want to have some sources I can use. So what are some good books that I could buy? I just want to get a book on prematurity/treatments etc. and I don't want to waste my money, I do want something that breaks things down in simple terms but not a book that's targeted towards parents..I figured this would be a great place to ask

[nicunursem10]

Try the Handbook of Neonatal Intensive Care, ISBN 0323033008, it was given to me during my internship, helped me alot. I know people even use it to study for their RNC exam.

[Love_2_Learn]

I will suggest a couple of books but will also recommend you go to the main NICU nursing page here on allnurses.com and towards the top you will see a box which includes a topic called "Stickys" or something like that. Click on that and you will see a link to "Members favorite NICU books" or something similar to that. There is a nice list of books along with a few posts about books.

I suggest the Merenstein & Gardner book as mentioned above. Get the newest edition. It is a classic written by a neonatologist and a neonatal nurse practitioner. If you are ever at a nursing conference and Sandra Gardner is speaking, be sure to attend one of her break-out sessions! She is a wonderful teacher. She is often one of the keynote speakers too. She is working on the 7th edition of this book which is expected to come out later this year or early next year.

For an outline and quick reference the Core Curriculum for Neonatal Intensive Care Nursing, 3rd Edition, Edited by M. Terese Verklan & Marlene Walden is awesome. I used it to study for my neonatal nursing certification exam. It gives the nuts and bold in an outline format. Not wordy but wordy enough if you know what I mean.

I also like Physical Assessment of the Newborn book by Tappero & Honeyfield which is listed in the "sticky". It is very good for learning assessments and details you often don't hear in the NICU. I was amazed at how much I learned from this book!

Because we remember babies and their cases easier than just reading things in a book, I suggest you try to place faces with illnesses. Therefore, my biggest suggestion is that you find a book you like and each day when you get off work, pull out the book and look up the information in the book about the children you cared for that day. For instance if you had a baby on NCPAP read about NCPAP. If he had a UAC or UVC read about that. If he was diagnosed with a pneumothorax read about that and chest tubes & transillumination, etc. Also get your own Neofax or the other wonderful drug book by Zenk, et al (listed in the sticky area) and be sure to look up all your drugs before you give them. Also, spend more time reading about them at home. If you have a BPD baby on oodles of meds you can go home and read all about BPD, nasal cannula oxygen, and the medications that are helpful and the harm they can possibly do over time if not monitored, etc.

One last suggestion, there is a book in the sticky area called Newborn Intensive Care: What Every Parent Needs to Know which is written for parents (it comes in Spanish too). Although it is a bit dummed down for our medical profession, it does give you some wonderful words to use (which are not jargon and difficulty for lay people to understand) for bedside teaching. It's a terrific reference for that and I highly recommend it! After all, one of the most important things we can do at the bedside to help the families is to offer information and teach in a way the parents can understand.

By the way, I believe you can buy all these books on www.amazon.com

One last thought is to join a neonatal nursing organization. The two listed below come with their own journals which you receive every other month. They also have other perks and discounts on items, conferences, and even CEUs. I am a member of both and have learned more than I can tell you from their journals! www.neonatalnetwork.com and www.nann.org

Good luck in your career! It's wonderful to see you have a desire to learn! It will only make you a better nurse so keep it up throughout your entire career!!!

[SteveNNP, MSN, NP]

I agree with the above posters that it is more helpful to look up diagnoses, procedures, treatments as you encounter them, since they will "stick" better. I always carry a NeoFax and "Care of the Sick Neonate" (about the same size) to look stuff up. I also keep a small cardiac care book with me that I got from my hospital's critical care cardiac course, since I frequently care for fresh as well as old postop open heart cardiacs.

[Imafloat, BSN, RN]

If you have the opportunity to take a STABLE class, I highly recommend it. It brought a lot of information full circle for me.