Neonatal stethoscopes and other equipment

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Hello everyone. Hoping some of you wonderful NICU nurses can answer a question. After 5 looooong years of applying to NICU positions, I was finally granted my 1 and only interview and was offered a position in a level 3 NICU at a teaching hospital! Yayyy. My question is, should I buy a neonatal stethoscope or do most if not all NICUs have these already in the babies room sort of assigned to these babies? Also any other equipment you may think I need would be helpful. Thank you in advance and stay safe out there

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Specializes in NICU/Mother-Baby/Peds/Mgmt.

The last Level 3 I worked had them for each baby. I always (since my first nursing job) carried my own scissors and hemostats. I would just ask if it's OK if you carry your own before you buy them because some places may be really strict on using your own stuff b/c of infection control. That being said my last hospital had individual supply carts for each baby, we wore gloves for ALL patient care and you didn't leave the baby's area and come back without washing and putting on new gloves and no one ever told me I couldn't use my own scissors and stats.

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Specializes in NICU.

You need to call the NICU you will be working at to make sure you do not need a stethoscope. Besides pens and a pen light, everything else (scissors and hemostats are in each patient's cart in the room.

I suggest purchasing a few resource books. "Merenstein & Gardner's Handbook of Neonatal Intensive Care" and "Core Curriculum for Neonatal Intensive Care Nursing (Core Curriculum for Neonatal Intensive Care Nursing)". There is no need to buy the latest edition, you can purchase used previous editions for a steep discount. Those two books are the best resource for NICU nurses.

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4 hours ago, NICU Guy said:

You need to call the NICU you will be working at to make sure you do not need a stethoscope. Besides pens and a pen light, everything else (scissors and hemostats are in each patient's cart in the room.

I suggest purchasing a few resource books. "Merenstein & Gardner's Handbook of Neonatal Intensive Care" and "Core Curriculum for Neonatal Intensive Care Nursing (Core Curriculum for Neonatal Intensive Care Nursing)". There is no need to buy the latest edition, you can purchase used previous editions for a steep discount. Those two books are the best resource for NICU nurses.

Thanks nicu Guy. I have purchased both books already. I have started reading the core curriculum on my off days. Lots of great info. I’ll make sure to ask the manager about the stethoscopes. I’ve been wanting to do this well over a decade and I am still in disbelief that I’ve finally reached my goal. So excited and I can’t wait to start this journey. Thanks for the great info. Be safe out there

22 hours ago, Elaine M said:

The last Level 3 I worked had them for each baby. I always (since my first nursing job) carried my own scissors and hemostats. I would just ask if it's OK if you carry your own before you buy them because some places may be really strict on using your own stuff b/c of infection control. That being said my last hospital had individual supply carts for each baby, we wore gloves for ALL patient care and you didn't leave the baby's area and come back without washing and putting on new gloves and no one ever told me I couldn't use my own scissors and stats.

Thanks Elaine. I’ll look into it!

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