tavalon1

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1. I have been on night shift for 30 years and...

   tavalon1 replied to tavalon1's topic in General Nursing

   I loved nights. I would have retired on nights. And that's all I will say about that.

2. I have been on night shift for 30 years and...

   tavalon1 posted a topic in General Nursing

   Now, I need to go to day shift. It is clear that I am one of those rare humans with an inverted circadian clock. So, I am expecting this to be like when a new nurse starts on night shift with all the physical struggles. Just as I did for night shift,...

3. what kind of pts did you get first year on your own?

   tavalon1 replied to tinybbynurse's topic in NICU

   I was not a new nurse when I started in NICU but new to NICU. I got an awesome orientation. I think it lasted 6 months and when I went solo, I got everything. But we were a soft level 3. We are a stronger level 3 now so I grew with the unit. I left f...

4. Update: no longer questioning my career choice

   tavalon1 replied to Nursebface's topic in New Nurse

   I call the first year in any specialty "Life Shock". It happens to new nurses and nurses moving to a new field. We have a lot of new nurses on our unit and I try to sit down and talk to them about this. It helps normalize it for them. Now, if a new n...

5. My professor told us NPs have no future...

   tavalon1 replied to anilechim's topic in NP Students

   Don't believe everything your instructors tell you. Spend this time honing your own judgement skills. Or to put it another way, "jackass don't know what he's talking about". We have a Neonatologist on call but the NNPs run the medical side of things...

6. Help! Night shift and NICU opportunity

   tavalon1 replied to RNuko's topic in NICU

   Of course your personal situation (familial, school, life in general) must dictate but as a nurse who has chosen to work night shift or evening shift all of my career, I can give a few tips to ease the pain and actually support your health, though it...

7. How common is all this support?

   tavalon1 replied to adpiRN's topic in NICU

   Level 4, absolutely. I work on a small level 3 and our RTS are not NICU dedicated so we have to know what they are supposed to know because they don't always know it. I learned everything I know about vents and oscillators from the RTs at a level 4 I...

8. Daily Weights?

   tavalon1 replied to whelanja's topic in NICU

   Actually, studies are happening right now around this very topic and it's because of the burgeoning field of Developmental Care philosophy and avoiding unnecessary trauma. I know it seems like weights aren't trauma but we're re-evaluating that and re...

9. Physical Demand

   tavalon1 replied to UCRN1111's topic in NICU

   I left Labor and Delivery about 10 years ago because of an injury to my C5. While I was out on disability, I was faced with the choice of leaving nursing or changing my specialty. I went into nursing because of my passion (a calling, really) for all ...

10. Dr. Brown Nipples....

    tavalon1 replied to adventure_rn's topic in NICU

    I hate Dr. Browns and I think the whole silly contraption doesn't do a damn thing to limit air swallowing. We have brushes to clean parts and we have bags so that we sterilize them each night. I had no idea they had one use ones that don't include th...

11. Breast Milk Verification

    tavalon1 replied to drb_30's topic in NICU

    Ours is within the epic system. I'm not sure if it got programmed in or if it got piggybacked on.

12. RNC-NIC

    tavalon1 replied to essT's topic in NICU

    I can tell you one thing not to do. Don't go to a prep course, then convince yourself that you need to study your weak areas as exposed by the course and decide to work on those before you sign up for the test. I went to a course by Rogelet last year...