Nicu resuscitation nursing

[Neonurse1515]

Hello. I’m currently training to be a primary resuscitation nurse who attends high risk deliveries. Any advice on how to remember or jot down all the numbers and times at delivery?? Like some mental tips and tricks! I do ask the nurses in the room to take notes at times but some times that is not do-able! Thanks!"

[babyNP., APRN]

If you don’t have someone available to be a recorder then you just have to guesstimate. I find it easier to write things down by minutes in age from the apgar timer (“around 2 minutes” vs an actual time. You can always put it in real time later when you find out what the birth time was.

If there is a provider there, it is a good practice to get together with them to compare notes so you are both telling the same story. I am a NNP and when I have an unexpected or extensive resuscitation, I usually write up my summary and then show it to the nurses before I sign off the note to see if they agree with “what I saw.” If they don’t then we try to work it out, although that is rare.

You also don’t need to have exact timing for everything. It’s actually better to give yourself some wiggle room to be more generalized rather than “at 30 seconds I did.” The more specific you are the more room a lawsuit has to tear you apart. For example, I usually write something like “initial NRP measures were given, then ...” and “I gave approximately 2 minutes of PPV” don’t box yourself into a corner, in other words.

[prmenrs, RN]

Paper towels. Just don't accidently throw it away. Find the clock in the room, use that for your time. You have the time of birth, so you can extrapolate age in minutes. We had a stamp w/all the admission data we could use on our charts. (showing my age--paper charts)