Hoowee....nothing like boiling hot weather and low pressure fronts...

Gompers, BSN, RN · Aug 6, 2006

To bring out the preemies! We are getting slammed this past week! Everyone else busy too? It has been wicked in our unit and everyone is stressed out...not only are we busy with the new ones, some of our chronics are heading for the celestial discharge :o I need a vacation!

We've been crazy busy all summer, too!

And the other night, when we had really bad storms and lots of pressure changes outside...we had one of the worst pulmonary hemmorhages I've seen in a while. The preemie, who was off the vent at the time, had to be reintubated with blood pouring out of the nose and mouth. Had it not been for the atropine we gave pre-intubation, there would have been a code. We were pushing RBCs, FFP, platelets, saline, you name it...

There's another post on this board where we talked about pressure changes outside causing trouble in the NICU. Maybe someone can dig it up? I need to take a nap before tonight's (sure to be crazy) shift...

fergus51 · Aug 6, 2006

I'd happily take some of that. We've been floating to newborn nursery since I started my last contract. I've worked more shifts there than in the actual NICU.

Humbled_Nurse · Aug 6, 2006

We have also been very busy most of the summer and especially right now. We have had to close the unit several times this summer. Lots and lots of preemies. I guess it's job security

dawngloves, BSN, RN · Aug 7, 2006

We're busy too. But I've seen it go both ways. Last summer we had lulls. We had one around Christmas too, then in the spring.

unikuelady, RN · Aug 7, 2006

:eek: We've had our share of ups and downs in census also. one week we have 2 babies in our small 5 bed unit, then the next week we have 12! Unable to transfer any to bigger units because they also were full. Almost all of our babies we keep are grower/feeders or on antibiotics.

And YES i do believe that the changes in the weather as well as full moons tend to give us more patients.

BabyRN2Be · Aug 8, 2006

There was something very interesting on Intellicast, a weather forecasting site. They give the areas on which there's a high chance of women going into labor.

It's not working tonight, but I'll give you the info to read from Intellicast's site.

www.intellicast.com/Health/Articles/WxHealth/#LABOR%20AND%20BIRTH20%INDEX

Close to the bottom of the page, there is a Labor and Birth Index.

When the site is working, you can click on a map, and they'll show you which parts of the country where the atmospheric pressures are predicted to drop rapidly, and pregnant women should be prepared for possible labor.

It may not be all the accurate, but it's interesting.

Hope the link works.

ETA: I looked again and there's even a "Bad Hair Day Index" showing parts of the country bad hair days are expected. :)

Gompers, BSN, RN · Aug 8, 2006

And the other night, when we had really bad storms and lots of pressure changes outside...we had one of the worst pulmonary hemmorhages I've seen in a while. The preemie, who was off the vent at the time, had to be reintubated with blood pouring out of the nose and mouth. Had it not been for the atropine we gave pre-intubation, there would have been a code. We were pushing RBCs, FFP, platelets, saline, you name it...

About 48 hours after the pulmonary hemmorhage I mentioned above, we had ANOTHER bad one in ANOTHER non-intubated preemie. We've gone MONTHS and MONTHS without any hemmorhages and suddenly we get 2 in 2 days, both with kids that we're even on the vent at the time. Weird.