New grad, please tell me how you feel about level of responsibility

[Lurdes777]

hi All,

I am a new grad exploring different areas of where I want to apply. I like NICU, but very much scared of the level of responsibility that involves babies.... They are so vulnerable and any little mistake, especially from a new grad, can be fatal. Did you feel this way when you started working there? Had anxiety?

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

No more anxiety than any other new grad starting out on their own. Each facility (Level and size) will be different. I started as a new grad in a very large Level IV. I had 12 weeks of classroom and one-on-one preceptorship. Once I was off orientation, I was assigned stable vents and "feeder/growers".As time went on, I was getting assigned babies with higher acuity. I always had experienced nurses around me to ask questions and advice.

[llg, PhD, RN]

A nice thing about a place like NICU is that there should always be someone around you can ask for help as needed. To me, that is much less scary that working in an environment where RN's are few and far between.

[Lurdes777]

How many babies per nurse?

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

1:1 high acuity baby

2:1 stable baby on vent or art lines and a feeder/grower

3:1 three feeder/growers.

Most commonly 2-3 babies depending on staffing. Never exceeds three.

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

A nice thing about a place like NICU is that there should always be someone around you can ask for help as needed. To me, that is much less scary that working in an environment where RN's are few and far between.

Help is always around you when you need assistance. Yelling "I NEED HELP" will get you 4 nurses in 30 seconds.

[BrandNewBabyNurse]

I'm a very new grad in a Level IV unit. Still on orientation, so I have yet to really be on my own, but I can understand why you have the fears you do. It can certainly be intimidating having a 500gm patient dwarfed in the sea of wires/tubes/etc... and knowing that you are responsible for keeping on top of everything. But the great thing (like others have said) is that, at least in my experience, NICU is very much a team sport. All of the nurses are always looking out for and checking in with the other nurses in the vicinity, and should you ever need help, there's bound to be at least one or two people there in a flash. I definitely am still anxious about being off orientation, but I think there's a certain level of fear that's expected, and it means you'll be extra careful to triple check your actions. On my unit the patient to nurse ratios are 1:2 for ECMO kiddos, 1:1 for critical non-ecmo, 2:1 for most things like stable vents, CPAP, etc... and 3:1 for feeders. Much more manageable to me than having 5-6 patients (or more!) on a general med-surg floor!