Nursing school

[EnursMstuR]

I recently had a baby and during his stay in NICU i fell in love with the environment there. I always planned to be a nurse but i hadnt figured out a specialty until then. My question is how much education do you have to have to work in the NICU and is there an extra certificate after nursing school to be in the NICU?

P.s- If there are any NICU nurses from Sparrow Hospital in MI I thank you with my whole heart for taking such good care of my baby boy... and getting him home healthy.

[hikernurse]

An RN should get you there :). A lot of units have new grad programs with a lot of orientation to get you going. That's what I did. There are differing opinions about that, but overall it seems to be a pretty effective way to go about it.

You don't need any special certification to start in the NICU.

I'm glad your boy came home safe and sound. We love happy endings .

[lynn_13531]

Different hospitals have different requirements for who they will hire, most would prefer previous NICU experience but in my experience many will hire new grads (gotta fill those positions somehow!), and some places (like my current hospital) actually prefer new grads because they're cheaper . So all you really need to get started is your RN, I have a BSN but I've worked with lots of gals with 2-year degrees and they didn't have trouble getting hired. I started in the NICU as a new grad 2 years ago and I love it! One caveat is that since you don't get much (if any) NICU stuff in school you're responsible for a heck of a lot of learning in a short amount of time, and it pays to be proactive and study alot on your own rather than try to passively absorb all the information...Not gonna happen in that 3 month orientation! I still feel like I don't know what I'm doing some days, and everything I learn just makes me aware of a dozen other things I need to read up on...So start studying now! Good luck :wink2:

[NICU_babyRN, BSN, RN]

Although many hospitals do hire ADN RNs, I feel many are going away from it for their NICUs. My hospital still hires ADN RNs however they prefer some experience or the "promisse" to go back to school for the ADN to BSN program-which gets paid in full by the hospital.

Personally, I don't think it matters if you have ADN or BSN. Both can get you to the NICU. It is true that you will have to learn a lot on the job, but that is with any NICU you go to, and you will learn something new everyday!

Most NICUs will provide you with "classroom time" as part of orientation. The hospital should also provide you with NRP certification either as part of orientation or within the first year of employment.