NicuNightRN

Supine first 72 hours of life. Can log roll at 72 hours side to side. Prone after 1 week. Hands on with first assessment and then get vitals off the monitor and bed for every other feeding. Diaper change every other feeding.

I passed out last year during a circ. I'd been an RN a little over a year, and so had assisted with more than one circ. I remember I had on my jacket, so I was a little warm, but figured I'd wait to take it off until after the procedure, since I wa...

We only use the in-line where I work. I've never had any problems with it! I feel like it is easier because when I was an intern in the NICU in school, you had to disconnect the baby from the vent and needed a second person there to hook the vent b...

I had a baby this week with a PAC in his right arm. When I came on, the waveform was dampened, it had a really narrow pulse pressure (like 36/32 (34)) and I could not draw from the line. Day shift had been having problems with it and couldnt fix it...

We chart that the auscultation is deferred due to HFOV. The Neo's and NNP's will pause the vent to auscultate, and I have seen RT's listen over the vent. I just look for a good chest wiggle.

We have a charge nurse and a clinician, but no other kind of "support RN." We try to avoid them having assignments, but it is sometimes unavoidable if we're understaffed. We're the neonatal referral center for our area, so we do a lot of transports...

*chapstick (most important item in my pocket!!!) *pen and sharpie *scissors *hemastat *elastic band for my hair *calculator Our babies each have a cart at their bedside with everything we could possibly need - alcohol swabs, IV supplies, sucrose, etc...

In the last 3 weeks, I went from suspecting I might be pregnant, to finding out I was, to having a miscarriage. The pregnancy was unplanned - my boyfriend and I didn't plan on having kids for another couple of years, but we wanted the baby. Being a...

The other night, I had 3 kids: 1 rooming-in with Mom, getting ready to go home 2 days later; 1 feeder-grower in a crib, parents didn't speak English; the last a 36 week twin with hyperbili and apnea issues. It really shouldn't have been a difficult ...

Thanks everyone. I'm surviving work, but still finding people that I haven't seen since this happened, and they ask things like how many weeks I am now, etc. I'm not sleeping through the night yet, but I think part of that is because I came down wi...

My first night back was not what I expected. Our unit has been pretty slow (we're at about half of our normal census), so on my first night back, I had to float to the other NICU in our network! It is in a hospital that I had only ever seen from th...

Well, tonight I go back to work after having had some time off, and much like last week, I am starting to panic a little bit. My boss did say she would help pass around the info to make it a little bit easier for me, and after running into a coworke...

Thank you all so much for your comments and support. I did return to work that night as planned, and it was an extremely emotional night. My coworkers asked all night long how I was feeling, since I'd been so nauseous the last time I had worked, an...

Thanks, Sarah. I know that a few of the girls I am close to at work are working tonight along with me, and I did consider telling one of them and asking her to tell the rest of the staff. Every time I think about it though, my eyes well up with tea...

I actually started as a new grad in Austin last June, after graduating in May. I did have some trouble getting my foot in the door, but I was very persistent. I applied online late one night, and the next day started following up with phone calls. ...

#1. what has been the number 1 change in your life since you began your nursing career? i have to plan my life out at least a month in advance! my sister wanted me to go skiiing with her in march, and i couldn't go because she only told me 2 weeks ...

I say Nicku...but every nurse in my unit answers the phone differently. Some say nicku, some say N-I-C-U, some say each word, some just say Neo or Neonatal. We don't have a neuro ICU, so perhaps that helps with confusion...

What do you think of continuing feeds while on indocin? We've had several kids that have perfed lately after being fed while on indocin. They were not tolerating feeds before indocin was started (trophic feeds) and then these feeds were continued. ...

For OGT's, I place a patch of tegaderm on the chin then use on top of it to secure the tube - cut almost in half lengthwise so there is a tiny bit left holding the two halves together. The bottom half I put on the tegaderm, and the top half I wrap a...

Yes, indocin does cause decreased blood flow to the gut, which is why I don't understand why so many of our docs continue feeds. The nurses always complain to the docs about continuing feeds. Apparently their reasoning is that having something in t...

I grew up in Houston. The people are nice and friendly for the most part, but it is probably the only city in Texas with 24 hour traffic jams - a 20 mile commute can take an hour and a half! It does depend on the part of town you want to live and w...

My goal is to eventually become an NNP. Looking at programs, most require a minimum of 2 years experience as a NICU RN. I have 10 months of experience now, and I'm starting to wonder if 2 years is going to be enough. I certainly don't think that a...

I'm glad you get to orient on nights! I had to orient on days, and I hated day shift!! And I think it's a good thing to be scared when you try to reposition a baby on a vent. I don't like to do it alone, unless I am going from supine to left or ri...

I'm a new nurse, graduated last May. I also went through the same sort of dilemma. I knew that I wanted to go to NICU, but heard so many people say over and over again that new nurses need to go to med-surg to get the basics down. I HATED taking c...

I graduated from TWU, and we did have some part time students. However, I'm not sure if they started full time and dropped to part time or if they actually started part time. I do remember that your nursing classes are good for 5 years, so you have...