Please answer some questions about being a 'normal' nursery nurse! Thanks!

Mimi2RN, ASN, RN · Sep 12, 2004

Lots of questions, so I'll give you some ideas. First of all, you will have to go to school, probably a four year program as you are 18 and have the time to do it. That way you will already have an RN and BSN. It takes at least three years to get an ADN, but you would still have an RN.

Next step, to work with well babies, you may also do post-partum couplet care, taking care of mom and baby. I don't know of any hospitals around here that still have a newborn nursery. Most babies stay with mom, unless there is a problem. All hospitals that do labor and delivery have a nursery for sick babies, but don't keep anything complicated.

If you work with newborns, giving meds and starting IV's is part of the job, and you will be able to do it.

I'll try to write more later. Got to go to the store.

Purlple · Sep 12, 2004

Hey Im in highschool and Ive been thinking about being a neonatal nurse. I would really love to be a 'Normal' nursery nurse. Is this a good thing to do? Is it fun? Boring? Easy? Hard?
Hello, Heartfelt4newborns,
You could volunteer in your local hospital if they have nursery (most hospitals do). Sometimes hospitals are accepting volunteers to hold babies, rock them, est. You would need to check through the Human Resourses department of your local hospital. You would be able to see what the neonatal nurses do and if you like it.
Good luck!

Heartfelt4Newborns · Sep 13, 2004

Thanks guys! Im going to try to volunteer...that would be a great experiance even just to see what its like working in a hospital. It would be fun too! :lol2:

mischievium · Sep 13, 2004

Hi Heartfelt4Newborns,

Sounds like you could use a little explanation on the different types of nurses there are (?) I'm not sure I'm the best person to do this, as I am new to nursing myself, but I'll take a stab at it (and maybe the more experienced nurses on the board can add their corrections/ comments?).

Licensed Practical Nurse/ Licensed Vocational Nurse (LPN/LVN)

Education: 1 year full-time (depends on the program)

Duties: Does everything that an RN does-- EXCEPT (technically) anything that involves assessment of the patient or patient education. I say technically because I don't think that's what actually happens in practice-- I would guess LPNs end up doing some assessment and teaching. LPNs, to my understanding, work under the direction of RNs and are generally assigned to the most stable, least-complicated patients.

Pros: Less time spent in school before working. Can become an LPN and get a job and then go to school part time to get your RN while you're working (most hospitals have some sort of tuition reimbursement program).

Cons: You work under an RN (this may or may not be a con, depending on how much autonomy you want). The pay-- LPNs are paid considerably less than RNs (up to half as much) for almost the same job. More limited in what unit in the hospital you can work in-- this seems to vary by hospital and state. I know that on the Labor and Delivery floor I worked on, they only had RNs, no LPNs-- I don't know off the top of my head whether or not LPNs can work in the well-baby nursery or not (though my instinct is that they can)-- BUT if you are thinking about becoming an LPN then you should really look into what the case is for LPNs in the state and city/cities you think you want to work.

Associate's Degree in Nursing (ADN- RN)

Education: 2-3 yrs full-time. Makes you eligible to take the NCLEX-RN and become a Registered Nurse (RN).

Pros: Less time/money to become an ADN than to become a BSN. Can work as an RN and enroll in a RN-to-BSN program (and, again, many hospitals have a tuition reimbursement program meaning that they'll pay for part/all of your RN-to-BSN classes).

Cons: Still may make less than a BSN, may be limited as far as chances for advancement.

Bachelor's of Science in Nursing (BSN- RN)

Education: 4 year degree. Makes you eligible to take the NCLEX-RN and become a Registered Nurse (RN).

Pros: Receive a bachelor's degree. Greater chances for advancement, should you eventually decide you want to become an administrator or want to go to become an advanced practice nurse/ nurse-practitioner (which requires a master's degree). Highest paid.

Cons: Most time and money.

As someone else suggested-- if you decide you do want to become a nurse and you can afford it, I would VERY SERIOUSLY suggest you go to a four year school. I know that not everyone's in a situation to go off to college and live in a dorm, etc., but if you can, you should. For me, college was a great experience.

-m.

Heartfelt4Newborns · Sep 13, 2004

Thanks! You were right, I didn't understand what the different types of nurses there were so thanks a ton! :rolleyes:

mischievium · Sep 14, 2004

To answer some of your other questions about working in a well-baby nursery:

Hey Im in highschool and Ive been thinking about being a neonatal nurse. I would really love to be a 'Normal' nursery nurse. Is this a good thing to do? Is it fun? Boring? Easy? Hard? Is this the kind of nurse that you feed, weigh, bathe, change diapers, and help mothers? I would also want to do the Mother/Baby thing. Is this what you do when you help mother bond/etc with their baby?

First: Take what I say with a grain of salt, as the only time I spent working in the well baby nursery and on the postpartum floor was a few weeks during nursing school.

In the hospital I was in, the nursery staff pretty much stayed in the nursery and took care of the newborns. The staff on the postpartum floor were the ones who did more of the "bonding" stuff like teaching breastfeeding and basic baby care.

As far as whether it was hard, etc. Well, it depended on the day and time. One day I was in the nursery, I came in and there were 30+ babies waiting to have their vitals signs taken (heart rate, respiratory rate, temp), get bathed and changed in to clean diapers, shirts, and blankets, and taken out to their moms. I really love working with babies, so I found it fun-- but it was REALLY busy, and there were many babies crying. I'm not someone who likes leaving babies crying, but there were only so many hands, so I tried to take care of the crying ones first. BUT, an hour later, there were 2 babies in nursery (all the other baby's were out with their moms) and I held one of them while I worked on paperwork.

I also spent time out in the postpartum unit (the nursery is INSIDE the postpartum unit). I really enjoyed working with the moms-- BUT every mom is different and you have to learn to be flexible and sometimes find creative ways to help them.

The difficult part of the nursery and the postpartum unit is the serious/medical side of it. Most moms and babies are just fine, but things can go wrong and you have to be ready for it. With moms, you're not just there to help with bonding, you're there to assess their bleeding (is she bleeding too much? is there an infection?), the location/firmness of their uterus (you usually can feel it through the abdomen and it should be firmly contracted), etc. With babies, you have to be on your toes for signs of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), hypothermia (low body temperature), etc. Like I said, most women and babies are just fine, but your first resposibility as a nurse is to safe guard their physical well-being, so you can work on their psychological well-being (the bonding, teaching moms basic new baby care, etc.).

That all said, I LOVED working in the well-baby nursery.

I was also thinking about doing the night shift..is this hard?

Haven't done nights, yet. :)

Before you can get into this career, what kind of things to you have to know/learn/understand? My grandmother was a neonatal nursery nurse but she died before I was born. I heard that she had to disect a cat for a class in med school! Is this true? I dont think i would be able to handle it....

See my post above about the different types of nurses/ schooling. RE: disecting the cat. Yep, I had to do that in my Anatomy class. BUT, I have a friend who took and online Anatomy/ Physiology class and she didn't have to, so it depends on the class/school. The thing about it is that it isn't any fun (I like cats), but you can get through it because it's one class, one semester, then never again.

Also when you are this kind of nurse do you have to give IVs if you dont think you can? also shots? I kind of right now have a weak stomach so would you ever be able to say you cant do these things?

I think one of the previous posters said it best, you have to focus on doing what's best for the baby. If the baby needs an IV, if their life depends on it, and you are the one caring for them, you do it because you care about them. And :) actually, IVs can save you having to give a baby shot after shot. It's amazing what you can deal with when you are in the role of being the caregiving professional-- I won't go in to details, but let's just say that there are plenty of things that I thought would gross me out, but when they happened and I was the one who was supposed to help clean the patient up and try to protect their dignity, I did what needed to be done. You can too.

That said, in the well-baby nursery I was in, I didn't see anyone put an IV in a baby (usually they went to the NICU if they needed that). But, the nurses had to be ready to do that if that's what the baby needs.

What are the requirements, duties, responsibilities, pros/cons, hours, and salary of 'Normal' nursery nurse?

Requirements: to be an RN (or, possibly LPN/LVN), to like babies :)

Duties: (from what I remember) Admit newborn babies from the labor and delivery unit. Perform an initial newborn assessment (check vital signs, check skull for signs of swelling or "caput succedaneum," etc.). Warm baby up in warmer and give first bath. General care: taking vital signs, changing diapers, bringing babies to and from mom and checking bracelets so that the right baby goes to the right mom, giving bottles if needed, bathing, changing blankets/ clothes. AND of course PAPERWORK!:)

Hours: most people start working nights and then switch to the day shift when they have seniority.

Salary: depends on area, hospital, and which type of nurse you are.

We have this thing in high school now called "18 and out". It means you can graduate with 18 credits and year early. Can you still be this nurse even though you do 18 and out?

You need to contact specific nursing programs and find out what their requirements are. You can look on their websites, but I'd call and speak to someone in their admissions office to be sure.

Before you are a nursery nurse, what kind of classes do you have to take that dont have to do with newborns and stuff? How long do you go to college and med school and etc?

In my previous post I talked about the different types of nursing programs. In general, most programs include classes in Anatomy and Physiology, classes dealing with the basic functions of each of your organ systems and common diseases/ disorders, Pharmacology (prescription drugs), psychiatric nursing (mental health/ disorders), etc. You might want to look at websites for specific programs/ schools and see what they include.

Also, most include clincal rotations where you work in a hospital, usually you are there with a group of students and a "preceptor," or teacher who's there to teach and evaluate your patient care skills.

You don't go to "medical school"-- that's where doctor's go. You go to nursing school, and I talked about the different lengths or different programs in my previous email.

I hope that helped. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask!

-m.:)

Heartfelt4Newborns · Sep 14, 2004

Oh my! You have no idea how much this helped me..thanks so so much for writing all that! I've researched and researched and I could never get the information that I wanted! I really do love babies so I think this is the perfect job for me. I always watch A Baby Story on TLC. Its one of my favorite shows. Im going to try to volunteer for now at a local hospital and hopefully that will make me want this even more. But anyways thanks a TON!

mischievium · Sep 14, 2004

Thanks! You were right, I didn't understand what the different types of nurses there were so thanks a ton!

I didn't even know there *were* different types until a year ago and I didn't understand what the differences were until I was studying for the NCLEX-RN (the licensing test for RNs) this summer :rotfl:.

-m.

mischievium · Sep 14, 2004

Oh my! You have no idea how much this helped me..thanks so so much for writing all that! I've researched and researched and I could never get the information that I wanted! I really do love babies so I think this is the perfect job for me. I always watch A Baby Story on TLC. Its one of my favorite shows. Im going to try to volunteer for now at a local hospital and hopefully that will make me want this even more. But anyways thanks a TON!

Glad I could help!:)

One other note about the IV thing-- the "rule" seems to be that one nurse will make 2 attempts to get an IV in and then will get another nurse to try. Even very seasoned nurses have times that they miss the vein. :)

Heartfelt4Newborns · Sep 14, 2004

If I were to be a LPN, right after graduating high school, were do I go?

prmenrs, RN · Sep 14, 2004

I'll bet you're resourceful enough to find that info @ your sdhool's counselling office! If not, come back and let us know.

In all likelihood, you will not be able to work in a newborn/NICU setting as an LVN/LPN. Most hospitals don't have a "normal" newborn nurseries, the babies stay with their moms.