New To NICU: How was your experience?

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When I made my transition, I felt like many of the nurses who knew I was an experienced acted as though I was suppose to know a lot of stuff about babies and critical thinking from the get go. But NICU is very different from the adult population (Med-surg/telemetry). Very different. I often had to keep reminding them that this is new for me, even though I wasn't a new grad nurse.

Experienced nurses who transitioned to NICU, how was your experience?

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Specializes in Cardiology, psych, Neuro.

Hello, I totally understand! I transitioned from mother baby to PCU cardio and my orientation was not good. I have been a nurse for 4 yrs. the first preceptor I had to hunt down for help, the second preceptor was always on her phone/internet or email! When I asked her to show me "cardiac stuff" she asked what do you want to know?! And acted like I was a bother. I had several preceptors in 6 wks due to lots new hires. Each field of nursing is specialized just like Doctors, you don't ask a nephrologist to deal with L&D or vise versa. It's the same with nurses!

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I too was an experienced L&D nurse with lots of adult experience before that. For the first 6 mos in NICU I felt like a new grad, a bit demoralising! I studied a lot at home as my orientation was very basic.

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Specializes in General Surgery, NICU.

Soliloquy,

This was my exact same fear when I transferred from adult med-surg, where I had over 4 years of experience, to NICU. And my NICU had a hospital wide reputation for bullying. However my experience has been very good the last 7 + months. There have been moments when I feel like a new grad and a fish out of water. But the majority of the nurses are helpful and do not hesitate to answer questions or help with a procedure, etc. The night nurses are less helpful and even have told parents that the newer NICU nurses (who took care of their baby on day shift) are not experienced enough to take care of their baby--awful! I also study a lot on my own. It's not always easy, but it's been worth it.

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Specializes in pediatrics; PICU; NICU.

When I started NICU, I had 26 years of general Peds. & PICU experience. The NICU I worked in gave the same orientation to experienced nurses as they gave new grads. We got 12 weeks total. If I remember right, we had 1 full day of classroom each week & the rest was bedside. I had 2 main preceptors who were both amazing. My biggest problem was that the first 8 weeks was on day shift & I'm a hard core night shifter! I never did get used to getting up early & having to stay awake all day.

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Specializes in NICU, adult med-tele.

I transitioned to NICU after about 1 year of med surg. Although I did feel very 'green' for quite awhile. I have to say my experience was not like that, in fact quite the opposite. Early on, my clinical manager gave me some ceu's to work on that hit on the basics of each organ system. It was several years ago but I believe they were offered by March of Dimes. It helped a lot, I didn't feel like a deer in headlights when preceptors mentioned things like brown fat metabolism. It's a different world. See if you can find some continuing ed or go back to your textbooks and review things like transition to extra uterine life. After you've been there a little while, try to find a copy of Core Curriculum for Neonatal Nursing. It's also really helpful but maybe too much right away. Having that background knowledge fresh in your mind may help make you more comfortable.

Good luck! One of the best things about NICU is you can watch these physiologic transitions happen right before your eyes! It's amazing.

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They give you at least 6 weeks with a preceptor (no assignments by yourself) even if you have non-NICU experience where I work. They review how you are doing, and if you need more time you get more.

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My experience from the neonatal intensive care unit is probably different than yours in that I was a nursing student; so I saw the neonatal intensive care unit from a student's pair of eyes. At first, I was very scared and afraid because of all of the equipment, noises, and monitors. I have never seen so many babies who were so sick and needed so much medical attention that it really scared me at first. Then, as the days went on, I got to where the noises were not as scary to me and I realized that these babies were in good hands with these wonderful nurses like yourself. So, I was thankful that I had the opportunity to do that type of work as a nursing student. I know that neonatal intensive care unit is very different from any nursing unit that anyone can work in and let me just say that I applaud you for your dedication and hard work on that unit. It is not easy work and I applaud you for it and the other nurses that are there as well. It is hard to make those critical decisions regarding the right type of care for those babies, but as you do your work you gain more and more experiences. So, just learn from your own experiences and everything will turn out just fine. Also, learn from the other nurses as much as you can. They really can help you in so many different ways. Thank you for sharing. Marcy

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