What changes have you seen in the past 2 years?

Specialties NICU

Published

hi everyone!

it's great to see this bulletin board is active and everyone is so friendly here!

i left a level iii nicu in may of 2000 after getting married and moving to another state. i have transport, charge nurse, preceptor, and mentor experience. also have my rnc in high risk neonatal nursing from ncc. i subscribe to neonatal nursing journals and have kept up with continuing education self-study programs. i just love neonatal nursing!!!!!

it's been 2 1/2 years and now i'm very seriously considering returning to nursing in our local level iii nicu in my new town.

my previous nicu didn't perform surgeries other than hernia repairs and laser eye surgeries--- the hospital here performs all surgeries except pediatric heart surgeries. this is exciting to me!!!

so here is my question:

what changes have you seen working in your nicu in the past 2 1/2 years?

have vaccinations changed? are certain medications not used anymore? what are the new medicines you are using? what's new in developmental care where you work? are there any new procedures or treatment plans in your unit? these are the kinds of things i'm wondering about...

any and all comments would be tremendously appreciated!!!

thank you in advance and i wish you all an enjoyable nursing career!!!

warmly,

anaclaire

:kiss

nell

272 Posts

As far as mads go, Wydase is no longer available and there is no replacemat drug. The FDC is trying to get someone to produce it again.

We aren't using dexamethasone anymore due to increased incidence of CP.

Anaclaire

202 Posts

Thank you for your reply Nell.

I remember Wydase was becoming harder and harder to obtain when I stopped working. It seemed to work really well for infiltrated IVs. Is anything being used in it's place right now? I sure hope someone will begin to produce it again!

I was completely unaware of the dexamethasone link to CP yet am not a bit surprised. Thank you for sharing this too.

I've noticed quite a few people have viewed this post but yours is the only reply. I like to think that I've not missed out on too much while away from the NICU area... I suppose several people viewing this post may have not been NICU nurses during the past two years to have any information to share, of course.

Thank you again Nell. I'm very appreciative!

Warmly,

Ann

NicuGal, MSN, RN

2,743 Posts

Specializes in NICU, PICU, PACU.

Nell...do you have any articles on that? We still use Dex on our kids and I would be interested to see those :)

Nitric Oxide, no wydase, more use of HFOV, extubating sooner, we do PDA's on the floor now, and central lines. We use PICC lines more now too. :) Feeding sooner without increases in NEC, less chronics.

There's probably more, but I have to think about it LOL

prmenrs, RN

4,565 Posts

Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

The biggest change I saw in my last 2 years of practise [and I do mean LAST; I retired July 1st!] is the decreased amaount of time babies spend intubated. Non-invasive ventilation/ventalatory support has VASTLY increased. Sats are kept much lower than they used to be, feedings are initiated earlier. Used to be that the baby'd be on hyperal after 2-3 days, now they get trophamine and multivits w/in the first few hours. Everyone seems much more aware of developmental care, not just the RNs; our hosp just got an OT whose primary responsibility is NICU. (we're a 4o bed unit, level III minus ECMO)

nell

272 Posts

NicuGal

I just recently found out about this too. We had a 26 weeker that we couldn't get off of HFOV (on for 1 1/2 months).

http://www.bmjpg.co.uk/books/neonat...dexacomment.htm

http://www.cps.ca/english/statements/FN/FN02-01E.pdf

http://depts.washington.edu/druginf...es/V30N6Sup.pdf (go to page 3)

NicuGal, MSN, RN

2,743 Posts

Specializes in NICU, PICU, PACU.

Thanks nell! I am going to bookmark them and read them later :)

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