Hours at the NICU during the year?!

megangraffeo · May 29, 2014

All nurses work weekends and holidays. Most of the time the new nurses work the holidays.

guest769224 · May 29, 2014

You are smart to start considering career options at your age. Taking a look at your questions-

1. All nurses in acute care (including nicu & picu) will have holiday and weekend requirements. If you were to gain very high seniority in the unit, you may be able to escape those, but count on rotating throughout the year. My unit allows for 6 hour shifts on holidays in order for the RN's to spend more time with their families. As a new grad RN, expect to work weekends and perhaps more nightshifts than day.

2. Generally hospital RN's work 3x 12 hour shifts per week if they are full time. Unless you were to work outside of acute care, this is standard. Although in CA 8 hour shifts are the norm so they may be an exception. Most units have a 6 am- 6pm, or 7-7 shift time.

3. If you'd like to get your feet wet while in college, I'd encourage you to get your CNA or EMT and apply to a local nicu/picu tech position. You will see firsthand what to expect as RN, and it will be an advantage to you while in nursing school. You can also call Human Resources at your local hospital and ask if they have any volunteer positions open to help in those units.

Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN · May 30, 2014

Good for you, thinking of these things already! :nurse:

I'm not a NICU nurse, but the answers are the same for any unit in the hospital. You WILL work weekends and holidays; you will almost certainly work nights or evenings because usually the senior staff get the day shift. It's not fun, but those babies don't stop being sick on the weekends. They need their nurse all day, every day until they are ready to go home. It's pretty common for them to hire RNs for rotating shifts, meaning you'll switch between days and nights every few weeks. Like ICUman said, 12 hour shifts are very common, but some hospitals have 8 hour shifts. I do 8 hour shifts myself. In every hospital I've worked at, RNs who work 12 hour shifts work every 3rd weekend; 8 hour shifts work every other weekend. And then generally we work every other holiday and alternate years, so the same RN isn't ALWAYS working Christmas. RNs can work full-time or part-time, depending on what she needs to work and what the hospital is hiring for. I've only ever met one RN who worked in the hospital 40 hours a week; most other "full-timers" work 3 12-hour shifts per week, or for 8-hours alternate between a 4- and 5-day workweek.

I did my training at a technical school, so I'm not sure when university nursing students start training in the hospital. Where I went, we had pre-nursing program classes, and then we started our clinicals the first semester of actual nursing classes. We did shifts in long-term care and in mother-baby our first semester. :)

I also agree with ICUman that you should think about becoming a CNA (certified nursing assistant.) It's very good experience for learning what to expect in a hospital or nursing home, and for learning to be around sick people/people who need help with physical needs.

Let us know if you have any more questions! The general nursing discussion under the "Nurses" tab ^^^ gets more traffic than the critical care fora get, so if your questions are about being a nurse in general, you might get more answers there. Just an FYI.

DaniellaHumphreys · Jun 30, 2014

Get your CNA license!!! Got mine at 17 years old, worked at an assisted living for a year and a half, got a job at a hospital in orthopedics (fractures, bone/joint surgeries) been there for a year and a half, applied to Post partum (where the moms go with their babies after they give birth) and because I had this neonatal experience as a CNA, I am proud to say that I am now a NICU RN with the help of this experience! :) Be a CNA first seriously, because a CNA license gives you an open eye to how the nursing field is really like and you will even get to see if nursing is something you even want to do! Every nurse regardless what kind of nurse they ended up being had to take care of an old person at some point, it sometimes annoys me that people only want to be an RN for kids and babies because they "hate" old people or don't want to deal with them when in fact old people are mainly what your learning about in nursing school! Either way, get your CNA first, thats my best advice.

by the way every nurse has to work weekends and holidays unless they've been a nurse for 15+ years.

Nurses can work 5 days a week but it depends on what you were hired for..part time or full time working?

Lastly, like I said volunteer at a hospital or get your CNA once you turn 17/18 years old.

Babies4life · Jul 8, 2014

Thank you very much! Is there a special name (ex. Neonatal, pediatric) for nurses that work with seniors?

Babies4life · Jul 8, 2014

Let us know if you have any more questions! The general nursing discussion under the "Nurses" tab ^^^ gets more traffic than the critical care fora get, so if your questions are about being a nurse in general, you might get more answers there. Just an FYI.

thank you @DaniellaHumphreys! I found it!

FlyingScot, RN · Jul 8, 2014

Thank you very much! Is there a special name (ex. Neonatal, pediatric) for nurses that work with seniors?

The term you are looking for is "geriatric" and can I just say thank you for your polite use of the word "seniors" to describe our elderly patients. I despise it when posters call them "old people". It is usually said in a very disparaging way as in "I don't want to work with old people". Posessing this much tact at such a young age will serve you well. :yes: