NICU New Graduate RN Offer

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Hi everyone. I am about to graduate nursing school and have been looking and applying for jobs. I am so grateful that I have received an offer for a position in a Level III NICU.  I have experience in a NICU from my nursing school. I loved the babies so much, and I thought they were just precious. I loved feeding them, changing them, holding them, and helping them in any way I could. BUT... I did find that there was a lot of down time. I'm not sure if that's just how it was those particular days.. or if the NICU is generally more quiet. 

I do want a position that will give me as much experience as possible. I didn't feel like I did much, other than feed, change, and administer tube feedings (and of course assessments and VS). I really want a position that will help me gain as much experience and learn as many skills as I can. Do you think NICU is capable of this? Did I just have particularly slow days? 

Any insight would be great! thanks!

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Specializes in Psychiatric, in school for PMHNP..

I know a NICU Nurse who said they now help cover an overflow of a medical floor.  The overflow moved up to the NICU floor. She does not like doing this, but I wonder if other hospitals might do this. Then you would get general medical experience as well as the great specialty of being a NICU Nurse.

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Specializes in NICU.

There are a lot of slow days and there are days that you are so busy (very high acuity baby) that the clock seems to be moving at 2X speed. There will also be days that start off slow and one of your babies takes a rapid turn for the worse and your day became exponentially busier. 

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Specializes in NICU.
On 2/2/2021 at 10:46 PM, yenool said:

  I have experience in a NICU from my nursing school.

No ,you do not...you have much to learn o Jedi..

Good luck with your career,wear your best roller skates.

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3 hours ago, Leader25 said:

No ,you do not...you have much to learn o Jedi..

Good luck with your career,wear your best roller skates.

Super helpful. Thanks so much!!

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Specializes in MSTICU NICU.

I work in NICU after coming from adult ICU. With both units there’s very busy days and time when your not running around constantly. I think that’s just the way it is in an ICU. Patients can be very critical and not require you to be on your feet the whole time. 

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

As a RN in a Level 3 you'll be doing much more than feeding and holding.  There's still that but you'll have vents, pre-op, post-op, procedures you'll need to transport babies to (unless they have transport nurses do that), etc.  Then there's meds, IV line changes, talking to doctors/residents/parents.... let's not forget charting! You will have some down times but there's always things to do when that happens.  And for the first year at least you can be studying NICU stuff when it's "peaceful".  You know you never say the "q" word, correct? ?

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Specializes in NICU.
6 hours ago, Nunya said:

You know you never say the "q" word, correct? ?

Except at shift change when you are not back the next day. Let night shift deal with the consequences of that statement.

We also have another superstitious word "home". When babies are getting close to being discharged, we say they are "getting ready to go to the zoo". If you use the "H" word, they will end up staying longer.

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On 2/12/2021 at 3:55 PM, NICU Guy said:

Let night shift deal with the consequences of that statement.

 

Nice teamwork mentality there! I work night shift -_-

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Specializes in NICU/pediatrics.
On 2/2/2021 at 10:46 PM, yenool said:

Hi everyone. I am about to graduate nursing school and have been looking and applying for jobs. I am so grateful that I have received an offer for a position in a Level III NICU.  I have experience in a NICU from my nursing school. I loved the babies so much, and I thought they were just precious. I loved feeding them, changing them, holding them, and helping them in any way I could. BUT... I did find that there was a lot of down time. I'm not sure if that's just how it was those particular days.. or if the NICU is generally more quiet. 

I do want a position that will give me as much experience as possible. I didn't feel like I did much, other than feed, change, and administer tube feedings (and of course assessments and VS). I really want a position that will help me gain as much experience and learn as many skills as I can. Do you think NICU is capable of this? Did I just have particularly slow days? 

Any insight would be great! thanks!

I have noticed just from my capstone that it really varies from day to day. Some days I am on my feet with barely any time for lunch, and others I have down time. My instructor's advice on this was that that is what you want -- a workload that ebbs and flows, up and down. If you have too much on either end, it's too easy to become burned out.

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