NICU Pet Peeves

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We've all got them. Those things we find that just get us riled. Perhaps reviewing them will help newer nurses. Perhaps writing about them will just let us vent.;)

Here's mine:

OGTs that aren't in far enough. The OGT may be in and secured where it has been but the baby has grown. Nurses check placement: push in a little air, hear the sound over the gastric area, aspirate and find no aspirate. They also don't get the air they pushed in back but since they heard the air they think the tubes ok when in reality its just above the sphincter in the esophagus. Put the tube down another 1/2 to 1cm and then you get back the air, and possibly a large amount of residual that was being missed before. If you don't get the air you pushed in back, you have to ask why not!

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Specializes in NICU, adult med-tele.

Agggghhhh yes that is one of mine too!

I would say the worst thing is when you have a kiddo that has had an unstable temo all day, then change the temp probe and it miraculously stabilizes...:angryfire

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Specializes in NICU.

:nono:My pet peeve is containment or kids stuffed in a Snugle-up and lying on a bed with no supportive nest around them. If, when a baby moves or kicks/cries the Bendy/blanket roll is pushed away; then it is not containing him! If a baby is in a nest but still flailing, she is not contained! Contained is like the uterus and we are to simulate that environment for proper brain development. When I care for preemies I keep 2 visual pics in my mind all shift; a baby in the womb and slides of a developing brain. Everything I do is with those 2 things in mind. There is a big difference in using materials and really making them work effectively. For our patients, the results are all in the details of how and why we do what we do.

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Specializes in NICU.
We've all got them. Those things we find that just get us riled. Perhaps reviewing them will help newer nurses. Perhaps writing about them will just let us vent.;)

Here's mine:

OGTs that aren't in far enough. The OGT may be in and secured where it has been but the baby has grown. Nurses check placement: push in a little air, hear the sound over the gastric area, aspirate and find no aspirate. They also don't get the air they pushed in back but since they heard the air they think the tubes ok when in reality its just above the sphincter in the esophagus. Put the tube down another 1/2 to 1cm and then you get back the air, and possibly a large amount of residual that was being missed before. If you don't get the air you pushed in back, you have to ask why not!

Wow, didn't know that! Thanks for posting it-it makes total sense, but not something I would've thought independently, even though it does seem kind of obvious.

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Specializes in NICU Level III.

Mine is when the shift before me doesn't restock the bedside...or leaves vomit in the bed and just covers it up!

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Specializes in NICU, Telephone Triage.
:nono:My pet peeve is containment or kids stuffed in a Snugle-up and lying on a bed with no supportive nest around them. If, when a baby moves or kicks/cries the Bendy/blanket roll is pushed away; then it is not containing him! If a baby is in a nest but still flailing, she is not contained! Contained is like the uterus and we are to simulate that environment for proper brain development. When I care for preemies I keep 2 visual pics in my mind all shift; a baby in the womb and slides of a developing brain. Everything I do is with those 2 things in mind. There is a big difference in using materials and really making them work effectively. For our patients, the results are all in the details of how and why we do what we do.

I don't like this either, I also don't like stinky pulse ox probes, esp. if the baby supposedly had a bath...the probe is the worst smell!

Also, forgetting to change IV fluids and leaving it for the next shift who already has TPN and IL to hang!!

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This is all really nice to hear.

I am so new at NICU nursing I have not really developed many. Im not a big fan of when there are no diapers at bedside and you do not realize it until your baby is laying there with a dirty diaper open.

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Mine is when the shift before me doesn't restock the bedside...or leaves vomit in the bed and just covers it up!

Exactly, esp when the care is EMPTY and they have done nothing but sit on their rear ends all shift.

Mine is those nurses who have "easy assignments" and do their hands on and then sit and surf the net, then they are inconvenienced when everyone else is slammed and you ask them for help. It makes you not want to help them when they are extremely busy. (I do, but the urge to say no is still there!)

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:nono:My pet peeve is containment or kids stuffed in a Snugle-up and lying on a bed with no supportive nest around them. If, when a baby moves or kicks/cries the Bendy/blanket roll is pushed away; then it is not containing him! If a baby is in a nest but still flailing, she is not contained! Contained is like the uterus and we are to simulate that environment for proper brain development. When I care for preemies I keep 2 visual pics in my mind all shift; a baby in the womb and slides of a developing brain. Everything I do is with those 2 things in mind. There is a big difference in using materials and really making them work effectively. For our patients, the results are all in the details of how and why we do what we do.

I'll second (or third) that. But even more so I don't like it when kids having procedures done aren't contained. I can't say how many times I see a nurse putting an IV in holding on to a limb for dear life while the rest of the baby is flailing all around. It's so easy to take a minute to swaddle the rest of the baby. Makes the IV easier for baby and nurse as well.

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This is all really nice to hear.

I am so new at NICU nursing I have not really developed many. Im not a big fan of when there are no diapers at bedside and you do not realize it until your baby is laying there with a dirty diaper open.

Thanks for reading. I hope our nit-picking is useful. It's the little things that make a good nurse and there is a lot you can miss in orientation. (Another of my pet peeves: slack orientation programs.)

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My biggest pet peeve is nurses who don't turn the lights on to really get a good look at the patients. I am stating it this way on purpose, because I would certainly hope my coworkers would care enough to make sure their patients are clean and comfortable. I truly believe in karma, and our responsibility to these innocents.

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Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.

My pet peeve is babies who are left in a tangle of monitor leads, temp probes. pulse-ox wires, IV tubing, etc., which is usually accompanied by a comment like, "The monitor is not picking up, the pulse-ox is touchy, the temp probe is not working well or the IV keeps occluding." DUH!

It can take forever to straighten these things out and make the baby look like something other than a ball of yarn attacked by a kitten as well as get the equipment working.

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