How can such small kids take so much energy???

Specialties NICU

Published

i have officially had a night from h*ll. i am thoroughly exhausted, and was after only about 4 hours of my 12 hour shift. we were miserably short to begin with, so that just set the scene. oh, and i was in the feeders/growers room. :uhoh21:

all night long all i heard was monitor after monitor after monitor alarming loudly. all 12 hours of my shift. we had kids playing bradycardia bingo...."let's see who can get the lowest hr for the longest time and repeat it most often" seemed to be the theme of the night. and of course, along with the bradying came apnea, followed by o2 sats that should have been incompatable with life. and let's not forget babies pulling o2 off, ng tubes out, wailing at the top of their lungs, etc. and of course, we still have kids that are ng fed, and their pumps are constantly going off while others are trying to die/eat/both at the same time. banghead2.jpg

everybody had more babies than they should have. how can you possibly po feed 4-5 babies in one hour??? and still save the babies that are trying to die on you? what about assessments, what about ng feeds, what about anything else that might need to be done?? :angryfire and let's not even think about the charting!! ha!!! recording o2 sats and fluids q1h?? so not a priority last night. when did we get to chart??? i think it started around 0645 this morning. by the end of the shift, i think we all needed a stiff drink and an extended vacation. thank god we all work as a team to get everything done, but it is still overwhelming.

how can neonates need so much attention??? i mean, what is up with them constantly violating their monitors??? and why does it seem like if one is having a bad night, all the kids are having a bad night???

i like the nicu, but i sure will be glad to go to l&d. at least i shouldn't have more than 2 people working hard to die at a time (but i won't hold my breath on that one!) i need a therapeutic rest!! :nurse:

thanks for letting me vent a little.vent.gif

Specializes in Nurse Scientist-Research.

I remember many nights in our "chronic" room where the kids constantly set off their alarms, mostly for desats but really for everything. We try not to "chase them with O's" so silencing the alarms and waiting them out is general practice. They generally desat and recover quickly. I had an assignment of 2 severe BPD kids that were side by side. It was convenient because I could sit between them with their alarms silenced and watch them. I would joke with the other nurses they were competing to see who could go lowest and stay longest. Fortunately they weren't the type to brady just desat. Usually after a three night run in the chronic room I will hear alarms in my sleep or have nightmares about kids extubating.

Specializes in NICU.

I'd love to know how management comes to the conclusion that you can safely take care of such sick babies, without enough staff. Two vent babies would wear me out (vents are new to us). Four, five or six grower feeders or r/o sepsis babes are way too many. I've seen how long it takes someone new to deal with ONE baby, and I've seen the paperwork after a non-nursery admin nurse has been "helping". At least in CA, we can't have more than 2-4 babies, depending on what kind of patient they are. We have had some leeway with our staffing, as we do attend deliveries.

Nekhismom, I'm glad you are getting away from that place. It's a disaster waiting to happen!

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