NICU nurses

I had never set foot in a NICU before. It just happened that when I applied for L&D they weren't hiring and the HR person asked me if I would consider interviewing for NICU. I said sure and that's how I wound up here. I think it's actually a very good area for new grads if you get a good orientation. Some managers feel new grads do better than nurses who come from other units.

In my peds clinical I had a newborn that was very ill with RSV. It was a difficult, and at various times, scarey day. However, it was the best day of my entire clinical. I enjoyed working with the parents and I know it may sound terribly strange, but I liked the acuity of the case. Later in my rotation I had the opportunity to shadow in the NICU. It was, for me, love at first sight. I graduate in May and NICU is my first choice. I know that I will have to continue to study in order to be a good neonatal nurse. I am prepared to make the sacrifice and I look forward to the many opportunites ahead. Best wishes to you!

I was in the middle of the my Nursing education, when i saw a documentation on TV about Preemies. That´s when i knew once i will work on such a Unit. I did a practicum during my last semester where i had to do it in my vacation time, cause in our school we weren´t able to earn such experiences. So i went to a Childrens Hospital where i had the first contact to these tiny little Human beeings. I finished Nursing school and started working on a ICU for Adults, got my licencen in Intensive Care Nursing and then went to a NICU.

So here i am, where i wanted to be.

I'm looking into becoming a neonatal nurse once I get my bachelors degree, does that require more education? Eventually I want to get my master's degree but I know skysurfer mentioned getting a license in intensive care nursing? The school I'll be going to offers a class in maternal/newborn nursing would I be able to do that once I get my bachelors degree? Also are there any book, websites or video's I can get to learn more about the NICU? I want to research the different fields as much as possible so that I can have an idea of what I want to do. Thanks.

~Amber~

Just visit the following websites

http://www.sccm.org/specialties/pediatric/picu_course/index.asp

http://pedsccm.wustl.edu/Clinical_resources.html

hope that helps

skysurfer,

I'll look into them when I get a chance :). I've been looking on the web for days and haven't found any sites that are helpful, so thank you.

~Amber~

There were several reasons I chose NICU:

A) When I walked into the NICU at the University of Alabama Birmingham I had the same feeling "thats IT" as I do when I see other "IT"s - you know, the feeling that "I've just GOT to have that". (I also have that feeling with certain shoes, cars, men...:rotfl:)

B) They had to kick me out of the same NICU each shift I worked. I LOVED it. The complexity, the equipment, the patho of it. The challenge.

C) Baby butts are SOOOOO much easier to clean than Adult butts.

D) Neonates are helpless and not due to their own fault/issues. I get frustrated with adult issues because they are often self inflicted. :imbar