New grad starting in the Neonatal ICU

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  1. How long before you felt confident in your role as a NICU nurse?

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      1 year
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      2 years
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      3 years
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      4 years
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      5 or more years

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Hi everyone!

I will be graduating in a month and starting in the Neonatal ICU in two months. I've been reading a lot on here about how the orientation can be very overwhelming because we our not taught a lot about this patient population during nursing school. I really want to be successful in this field and hate going through learning curves. About how long did it take you before you felt comfortable and confident in your role? It is a level III ICU so they do not take cardiac/surgery babies. My goals as of now are to get 2 years of experience in the level III (I have the option of signing a contract for two years where I'll get an $8,000 bonus... thoughts on accepting it?), maybe travel nurse for a year, and then I'd like to go to a level 4 ICU hospital. I am considering Neonatal NP down the road, how many years of experience would you recommend before starting that? Sorry, I know that was a ton of questions! I appreciate any and all advice!!

Thank you!

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Specializes in NICU.

It took me about 18 months-2 yrs to be comfortable in a Level IV. Be careful of hospitals offering sign on bonuses, there is a reason that they need to offer bonuses to attract nurses. They are either understaffed or have a high turnover rate.

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Thank you for your response! I had someone tell me to be cautious accepting somewhere with a sign on bonus ,but this is the only hospital that has offered me a NICU position which is where I've always wanted to work. I hear that they can be understaffed but I'm hoping I can stick it out for two years and then transfer to a different hospital. What do you think? I'm hoping the benefits will be worth the risk!

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Stay in the current unit for 2 years, you will probably feel comfortable and more ready to move on level 4 after this. Sure you could move earlier but it doesn't look great on your resume, NICUs invest a lot of money in new grads so give them 2 years at least. If you know your gonna stay and get comfortable for 2 years might as well cash in on the bonus.

Hmm maybe 5 years experience minimum before applying to NNP.

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Specializes in NICU.

Hmm maybe 5 years experience minimum before applying to NNP.

I actually disagree. It really depends on your experience of having a high acuity unit with nurse autonomy and your own personal learning ability/motivation to seek out opportunities to learn things. I ended up having 6 before I became a NNP (went to school around year 4) but I didn't need all that time. I probably would have done just fine with 3-4, and maybe even less if I hadn't worked night shift for the first couple of years.

With that, more experience isn't always necessarily better. I know quite a few nurses who were not able to transition into the role who had 15+ years experience. I think a large part of it was being uncomfortable with the uncomfortable reality of being "new" all over again and not being a master and not able to adapt as readily. This isn't true of everyone of course and I also know a few nurses who had extensive experience who are fantastic NNPs.

My program director said that they preferred to see nurses with 2-4 years experience as they saw them being more successful in their role transition versus those with much more experience.

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Thank you for your response! Yes, I would like to give this position 2 years before deciding whether or not to stay with this hospital so I agree, might as well take the bonus if I will be there anyways!

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