seasalt

Here's a list of a few of the babies I've met over the years. What amazes me is how well educated, downright likeable, some of these parents were. 1. Leon & Noel (male & female twins, since they are opposites mom spelled Leon backwards for Noel...or maybe, it was Noel for Leon....) 2. Danger S. (the S stand for Sebastian) 3. Lord Atticus Von Dugen 4. Bastian & Atreyu (twins named for "Neverending story" characters) 5. Layaway 6. Egyptain Pyramid 7. Panda 8. Paradyce 9. Trailer 10. Siegel & Saylor (female twins, pronounced Seagull & Sailor) 11. Precious Mahogany 12. Ja'Mes (pronounced Jay-meese) 13. Richard (mom wanted it pronounced Rich-chard) 14. twins Panther (male) & Hunny (female) 15. Grey (interracial marriage, black + white = grey) 16. Cinderella 17. Espn (pronounced Espen...yes, after the sports station. We've actually had TWO babies with this name!) 18. Abcde (several of these a few years ago, pronounced Ab-si-dee) 19. Nevaeh (Heaven backwards) 20. Quads: Maria Isabella, Maria Isanella, Maria Isella, and Felix Maybe we should all study law so that we can represent some of these kids when they sue for child abuse some day.

Don't let your co-workers discourage you, it's great that you are trying to learn the labs. Over the years I've worked with nurses who have that "you should already know this" look perfected.........what I found out is that most of them didn't know. I work in a huge level III NICU and we still have nurses that don't understad labs. There are a couple of good (I think) reference books. Protocols in Neonatal Nursing by Carole Kenner, Stephanie Rockwern Amlung, and Ann Applewhite Flandermeyer. The book costs about $45 (or $20 used from Amazon.com) and is over 700 pages. It's a paperback and doesn't take up too much room. Also, Comprehensive Neonatal Nursing by Carole Kenner, Ann Brueggemeyer, and Laurie Porter Gunderson. It's pricey, right at $115, 1200+ pages of just about anything you can run across in an NICU. It's one of those weight-lifting text books like you carried in nursing school. Both have lists of common lab values. If I remember right, a few years ago Neonatal Network ran a good article about CBC's explaining what abnormal results meant. Would your lab have a list of neonatal norms that you could copy? Good luck!!