CRDBear

HUP, Pennsylvania Hospital and Jefferson all have excellent NICUS and the "CHOP attitude" isn't present. Plus, pay and benefits are better!

I agree with you 2000%! I sometimes feel that families think we are waitresses or servents or something. My question to them is "who does this for the pt at home?" My job as the nurse is to take care of the patient's most pressing needs. Yes, nutrition is up there with needs, however, unless the patient has a specific issue such as aspriation precautions or something that would make it unsafe for the patient to be fed by a lay person, I feel the family can and should step in rather than sitting around staring at their loved one while the nurse is supposed to be at their beck-and-call! I have found that some families need permission to feed their loved ones...if suggested in a nice way, many times the families will gladly step in. I think it is important as well for keeping the patient headed toward discharge because we will not be going home with them! But, there are also those who stare at you like you have two heads and murmur something about "isn't that YOUR job?":angryfire Well....yes...but so is keeping my other 6-7 patients alive and breathing! Furthermore, it saddens and angers me that other nurses feel you are in the wrong profession because you feel this way. You sound like a competent and caring nurse who keeps things in perspective with what is important...keeping our patients SAFE.

Given that we as NICU nurses know what CAN go wrong during a pregnancy even with all the best prenatal care and the fact that nurses do have a higher rate of miscarriage and preterm labor (don't know where I read that statistic but it's somewhere!) I feel like we should be a little more tolerant. I'm not saying that pregnancy should be an excuse for not working and being a member of the team. I just think that if you know that a nurse is pregnant, try to make it as easy for her as possible to get through her pregnancy without any other added stressors. It's only nine months!

[ Yes, I'm human and do sometimes feel annoyed or disgusted by some of the things I hear or see at work but I also try to remember that I am the nurse, they are the patients, I'm there for them, not vice versa. WWJD? I have a feeling that Jesus WOULD NOT BE JUDGING US for venting to each in a supportive setting other RATHER THAN ACTING ON OUR FRUSTRATIONS TO OUR PATIENTS! - Vent thread=venting not jugding. Ok with that said...back to the original topic 1. Family memebers calling to ask "How's my daughter/son"? (or back in my adult days "How's mother/father/ doing?" Please give your loved one's name because I am taking care of a few "daughter/son"s or mother/father's today and I want to give you information on the right one. Also, when you call...please have questions in mind you would like to ask rather than just silence in the background while I try to drag information out of you. 2. On that same token - please designate one family member to call and ask for updates. Also, please understand I cannot give out information about your neighbor/friend/cousin twice removed ect because of HIPPA. Either call the family or call the person directly....you may not want to "bother them" but I can't help you! 3. Please don't pee or poop in anything other than a bedside commode, bedpan, urinal, toilet or brief/diaper. Trashcans, drinking cups, the floor, the bed or the flowerpot are not acceptable alternatives. 4. Please don't do drugs during your pregnancy and then ask why your infant is in the NICU either because he/she is early and sick or withdrawing and screaming. You know the answer as well as I do. 5. Please don't expect the hospital to furnish you with all the infant essentials to take you through the first two years of your baby's life. We can get you in touch with the proper people who can but we can't send you home with cases of diapers, formula, blankets, ect. At some point you need to recognize that this is you child and adjust accordingly. Thanks for the great topic

I love everyone's tips. I too am a fairly new NICU nurse, and I felt the same way you did cherokeesummer...I wanted to cry some nights when I went home. I think it was worse for me because I had expereince as a nurse with adults but babies are a whole other animal! It takes a little while before you feel somewhat comfortable. Just know that it does get easier. Time management is something that comes with time. Writing down a schedule at the beginning of your shift especially if you don't know the babies was helpful for me. Also, I try to work with one infant at a time and do everything for that baby before moving on and have everything I need at the bedside to make my assessment and cares quick and efficient. Overall, what I an suggest is this: Celebrate your successes, learn from your mistakes, know the only stupid question is the one not asked and know that we are all here to make the babies better! You sound like a great nurse and you will do well!

the hospital where i used to work had initiated relationship based care about 4-5 monthes before i transfered within the heath system to the hospital i currently work in. the book they used to start was relationship-based care: a model for transforming practice by [color=#003399]mary koloroutis (author), [color=#003399]jayne felgen (author), [color=#003399]donna wright (author), [color=#003399]colleen person (author), [color=#003399]marie manthey. from what i remember, it was a pretty basic approach that transcended beyond nursing and applied to everyone in the organization. it was a hospital-wide iniatitive but the model was practical and easy to follow and adapt so it might be somewhere for you to start. from talking to some of my old co-workers, it had been going over well and the transition was fairly easy. hope that helps!

I guess because of where our NICU is we have strange names more than we have "normal" ones! Some recent additions: Tynir and Tyzir (twin boys) Jihad (pronounced "jay had") Sartok Nasir It was kinda sad yesterday...I admitted a Daniel and all the nurses had looks of relief when the dad told us the name!

I'm a NICU nurse so artificial nails are a no-no in our unit but they are also banned from the entire health system I work in for anyone doing direct patient contact. Just a side note to those who love their artificial nails so much....I got them put on while in high school for the prom. The glue reacted to the protein in my nails and liftend the nail partially away from the nail bed. (There's a fancy name for it that I can't remember at the moment!) As a result, if my nails, especially my thumbs, grow out, I have a very weird looking white tip to my nails and am prone to breakage and infection if I have my nails long. So, I keep them short, polish or buff for special occasions and concentrate on having a nice pedicure. What else are you gonna do?!?

First I am so sorry for your loss. I'm sure your little angel girl is very pround of her mommy now! IMHO, if you feel that L&D is your calling, go for it! All fields of nursing are rewarding in their own way, but I think that there is a special place for everyone and if you feel that L&D is for you, give it a shot and good luck!

I think this post speaks to one of my frustrations in being a nurse - being your nurse does not mean that I am your personal "whipping boy". Nowhere in anyone's job description does it say that I need to put up with rudeness, threats or general LACK OF RESPECT for me as a person. I don't care how sick or in pain someone is - rudness is not acceptable. PERIOD. I understand that people in the healthcare setting are sick, hurting, scared and frustrated. In taking care of you, my job is to do that, not to judge. If my patients are in pain I will go out of my way to ensure that I do the best job possible to make them more comfortable and advocate for them. I will try not to judge wheter I feel their claims are legit or whether they are "drug-seeking" or whatever. All I ask is that I am treated with the basic respect and courtesy that I extend to ALL of my patients. I will listen to anyone vent, cry, scream ect. and offer whatever support I can. Just please don't direct it at the person trying to help you!

When I was doing adult heme/onc, I worked with a few nurses who had the above problems. Some of them were placed on our unit after going thru counseling, ect for their "problems" because part of the therapy was to be placed on a lower stress unit..ie not critical care. So...they put them on a heme/onc floor. With patients who are dying of cancer. Who receive major doses of narcotics. (For awhile they didn't have pyxis access so the other nurses had to give their narcs!) To me, it would seem that working in nursing in general is stressful and if you can't handle it without resorting to drugs, alcohol or the like...FIND ANOTHER JOB!!!

I know the policy when I worked adults was nothing smaller than a 5 CC syringe and the same is true for the NICU I work now. I'm sure there's a journal article somewhere but it should be a written policy I would imagine.

Hi All! I am a relatively new NICU nurse (6 months - did adults for 5 years) and have learned a TON from this forum. I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions about how to get siblings involved when they visit/any unit-based things that anyone does for siblings. Heres why - Today I was caring for a 27 weeker vented who desats with cares (I know..big surprise). His parents brought his eight year old brother to visit b/c it was sibling visitation. They were obviously wrapped up in the new baby and the poor brother was bored out of his mind after about five minutes. He kept trying to stroke his brothers head when I got him out for kangaroo care and whatnot and the parents were shooing him away. I felt bad because he wanted to help...he even asked me if he could help! I had a light day so I was talking to about his video games he liked and get him involved by having him get me blankets from the isolette drawer and taking him with me to find a hat for his brother. Finally, I grabbed some crayons and paper from the charge room and set him up to draw a picture for his brother. Part of the problem was that he was being a little loud because he was excited and his brother was desatting because of all the commotion in the bay! He did quiet down when I explained why it was important to be quiet around the babies. I almost wish one of the parents had been doing this rather than just shushing him and ignoring him but I'm not trying to judge. I was just wondering if anyone else had any suggestions/ideas for siblings because I feel that they often can get ignored when they come to visit. They probably dont want to be stuck there and if the parents don't bring quiet activiites for them to do, they can act up...they're kids after all! Thanks for putting up with my long post!

In regards to the Whisky nipple, my parents used whisky on my gums while teething...I'm sure it was common practice and yet somehow we all survived....go figure!

We dress at home and our entire hospital is instituting a navy blue scrub dress code for ALL nurses regardless of their floor. They are giving us two pairs and we have the option to buy more thru them or buy our own. (On an off note - the "free" scrubs are cheap and stiff and ill-fitting unisex...most of us are going to buy our own in the brands, styles and fit we prefer!). When we attend deliveries we wear a cover gown, with mask and cap if it's a C-section. Parents also wear cover gowns and have to scrub for two minutes before coming in. We only wear cover gowns on the unit if the baby is on isolation.