Name a NICU product you couldn't do without

BABY--RN · Nov 22, 2006

These beds are awesome. I wish we had them where I work now

I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have these beds!!! we keep asking--maybe one day:chuckle

BABY--RN · Nov 22, 2006

That may be true, but it's a lot cheaper than a $110 tubex of morphine for procedures........
Steve

We mix our own 24% sucrose solution...much cheaper... good in the fridge for 7 days. 1 packet of table sugar/10ml of sterile water. Packets are supplied from hosp cafe--not sure of weight.

Mithrah · Nov 29, 2006

There are a lot of really great NICU products. I especially love the Neosuckers. My last job didn't have them, and when my patient needed to be suctioned it was never effective or sufficient. Now at a different NICU I use them all the time and they are wonderful!

I also love...

Pampers for very low birthweight babies instead of Wee Pees.

I love sterile water bullets and NS bullets.

Feeding pumps!! My current job makes me hold the syringe for the feed. (Why???)

Paper MAR! The computer seems more unsafe. I like to have that MAR at the bedside.

Frederick T. Frog

Leads that actually stick!

Gompers, BSN, RN · Nov 29, 2006

There are a lot of really great NICU products. I especially love the Neosuckers. My last job didn't have them, and when my patient needed to be suctioned it was never effective or sufficient. Now at a different NICU I use them all the time and they are wonderful!

We trialed the Neosuckers and Little Suckers. They were great! But since we didn't order them, I've fashioned my own. I hate using a suction catheter to clean out the mouth because they're so small that you have to keep poking and poking in there to get all the thick secretions (especially if the baby is on Pavulon) and it's no wonder our kids get orally averted!!! So I take a skinny 1cc syringe and remove the plunger, then cut off the "wings" so the end is small enough to fit into end of the suction tubing. There isn't a place to put your finger to turn on and off the suction, but it works just fine without needing to do that. The tip is a little smaller and fits perfectly in little noses without going in too far to cause irritation - I just hold it gently inside the nose and the suction is strong enough to clear it out. Then for the mouth, the hole at the end of the syringe is large enough to really suck up all that thick stuff. I place the tip in a bottle of sterile water between passes to clear it out, then store it in the same bottle between suctioning sessions and toss it all out at the end of my shift.

This is the kind of syringe I'm talking about:

preemieRNkate, RN · Nov 30, 2006

We trialed the Neosuckers and Little Suckers. They were great! But since we didn't order them, I've fashioned my own. I hate using a suction catheter to clean out the mouth because they're so small that you have to keep poking and poking in there to get all the thick secretions (especially if the baby is on Pavulon) and it's no wonder our kids get orally averted!!! So I take a skinny 1cc syringe and remove the plunger, then cut off the "wings" so the end is small enough to fit into end of the suction tubing. There isn't a place to put your finger to turn on and off the suction, but it works just fine without needing to do that. The tip is a little smaller and fits perfectly in little noses without going in too far to cause irritation - I just hold it gently inside the nose and the suction is strong enough to clear it out. Then for the mouth, the hole at the end of the syringe is large enough to really suck up all that thick stuff. I place the tip in a bottle of sterile water between passes to clear it out, then store it in the same bottle between suctioning sessions and toss it all out at the end of my shift.
This is the kind of syringe I'm talking about:

We do this too! Although we've been told by that we're not supposed to, some kids are so boogery and slobbery you just cannot get ir with the bulb! As with any method of suctioning, as long as you don't go digging around, you won't cause much irritation.

prmenrs, RN · Nov 30, 2006

We trialed the Neosuckers and Little Suckers. They were great! But since we didn't order them, I've fashioned my own. I hate using a suction catheter to clean out the mouth because they're so small that you have to keep poking and poking in there to get all the thick secretions (especially if the baby is on Pavulon) and it's no wonder our kids get orally averted!!! So I take a skinny 1cc syringe and remove the plunger, then cut off the "wings" so the end is small enough to fit into end of the suction tubing. There isn't a place to put your finger to turn on and off the suction, but it works just fine without needing to do that. The tip is a little smaller and fits perfectly in little noses without going in too far to cause irritation - I just hold it gently inside the nose and the suction is strong enough to clear it out. Then for the mouth, the hole at the end of the syringe is large enough to really suck up all that thick stuff. I place the tip in a bottle of sterile water between passes to clear it out, then store it in the same bottle between suctioning sessions and toss it all out at the end of my shift.
This is the kind of syringe I'm talking about:

We did something like this, too, but "TPTB" decided that it was a risk management issue, and we should cough up the bucks to buy something intended for the purpose. In theory, you could have a sharp edge on the plastic of the syringe and cause an injury. How would it look that the hospital was too cheap to buy the real thing, and the nurses were forced to jury-rig, I mean, adapt one thing to serve another purpose? Since it helped us get the "real thing", we were happy.

We used something we called olive tipped catheters. I'm off to look for a picture.....

The correct name for it is BBG nasal aspirator, and Childrens' Medical Ventures makes it.

Gompers, BSN, RN · Nov 30, 2006

Oh, I agree that I shouldn't HAVE to do this...

But since we're not ordering the "good" ones anytime soon, I don't have much choice. No one else seems to mind using suction catheters but me. I can't stand watching people use a 6 or 8 french catheter, spending minutes on end poking it into a kid's mouth, adding saline to thin out the secretions (hello, aspiration risk!), using gauze 2x2's to pull out the gook, etc.

dawngloves, BSN, RN · Nov 30, 2006

We did something like this, too, but "TPTB" decided that it was a risk management issue, and we should cough up the bucks to buy something intended for the purpose. In theory, you could have a sharp edge on the plastic of the syringe and cause an injury. How would it look that the hospital was too cheap to buy the real thing, and the nurses were forced to jury-rig, I mean, adapt one thing to serve another purpose? Since it helped us get the "real thing", we were happy.
We used something we called olive tipped catheters. I'm off to look for a picture.....
The correct name for it is BBG nasal aspirator, and Childrens' Medical Ventures makes it.

I LOVE these!!

TiffyRN, BSN, PhD · Nov 30, 2006

We once had ONE aspirator that looked similar to the olive-tip. We used it on a child whose nose had been absolutely butchered (oh, sorry, traumatized) by NPCPAP, he had unusually small nostrils and chronically low platelet count. We were not to enter his nostrils except with that special catheter as they just bleed like crazy (he was finally intubated traditionally). It was very gentle and non-traumatic.

We have the regular neo-suckers too, I really love them.

Mimi2RN, ASN, RN · Nov 30, 2006

We mix our own 24% sucrose solution...much cheaper... good in the fridge for 7 days. 1 packet of table sugar/10ml of sterile water. Packets are supplied from hosp cafe--not sure of weight.

That's our mix, too. It works well, and the price is right!

KRVRN, BSN, RN · Dec 2, 2006

Tegaderms.

Aren't they just useful in so many ways?

preemieRNkate, RN · Dec 2, 2006

Tegaderms.
Aren't they just useful in so many ways?

Not just for the babies either! My plastic name badge case currently has 2 tegaderms holding it together!