NebraskaRN

Update I have had many good assignments since that day. The unit is trying hard to make assignments better. I am very happy with this hospital and my choice to work here.

thanks what state are you in? just curious if you don't mind.

thanks again i have seen other threads about this but i wanted more up to date information

thanks for the information

the nicu i worked at ny had a policy to glove for any patient and equipment contact but did not enforce the policy for jewelry here in fl you can where a simple wedding band but must scrub in at the start of the shift and practice good hand hygiene before and after patient contact. i agree that the bundles for ivs is a good idea and is proven to work, also i agree that babies need skin contact. i am undecided on the wedding ring, i agree bacteria is hard to remove around rings but i dont like not wearing my wedding ring i feel naked...lol i am planning on buying a simple wedding band to wear at work.

I have been at the hospital I work at now for just over 3 months. I had worked at a hospital in NY for 4 years and some nurses cleaned with cavi-wipes some did not. Here there are wipes in each baby room and again some use them some do not. I do wipe things down and some nurses call me a cleaner....lol oh well. The isolettes are suppose to be changed weekly, in NY the isolettes did not get changed. There is house keeping here that cleans the floor when they change the trash and linen bags, in NY they did not clean the floors but yearly they tried to clean the nursery rooms top to bottom. I am not aware of a written protocol for wiping things down here or in NY but I could be wrong.

Nurse to patient ratios can be difficult and a very complex and hard problem to figure out with the nursing shortage and bad economy.

Yes we have a ton of ISAM kids! :grn:At least 1 in every assignment it is crazy!:hdvwl: Even if they are not screaming you still have to give them Morphine every 3 hours which is a lot of time going to get the medication and getting a witness.

I think that if you went to work in another area of nursing and then decided that NICU really is for you they should not fault you for that. I have worked with a lot of nurses with varied backgrounds and some leave NICU and return. Nurses burnout it happens a lot even if nurses don't leave the NICU they may change something because of burnout due to the harsh stressful work we do....that we love But if you leave NICU and come back just try and stress that you love NICU and give a honest answer on why you left and why you want to come back.

and gauze or q-tips.....Tampa area regional medical center: sterile water, gauze, q-tips, and pink tipped oral care swabs

Upstate NY regional medical center sterile water

I did and I posted in the FL as well, but no reply

All Childrens Hospital Tampa General Hospital Saint Josephs Childrens Hospital Florida NICU Nurses? I have 3+ years experience in a level 3 regional NICU and I am looking into these hospitals and NICU's. I still want a fairly large level 3 NICU. So what can you tell me??? Good to work for? Benefits? Pay (I know nurse dependent)? Parking? Anything? I have researched these hospitals and these are my top 3. All Childrens just went to a huge 97 bed NICU. Tampa General and Saint Josephs are going to in the nest couple of years. I also have put in applications and have had phone interviews. I want to know what the nurses who work there have to say. Also I have done alot of archive hunting but I was hopeful for more recent information. :tku::tku::tku:

No sleep studies, we do corificeat "tests" and send babies home on monitors if they have oxygen. We also do the 5-7 day apnea "watch"

Depends on the baby and the situation. We have PT/OT and they have bring in stuff depending on the needs of the baby. Usually it is black and white, and mobiles.

We use cord clamps that have a hole in them for the ETT and tape to the clamp with "pink" tape, under the pink tape we use tegaderm as a barrier to the skin

I am researching moving to the St. Petersburg/Tampa area. I have researched Tampa General Hospital and All Childrens Hospital, they seem the most like the hospital I am working at now. IF anyone is living in Florida and knows a different hospital I should look into that would be great. Also if you have any information on TGH or ACH that would also be helpful. Furthermore if you know the name of the nurse recruiter that would be awesome.

I have worked in a level 3 NICU in upstate NY for 4 years. The NICU I work in has nurseries it is interesting to think of private rooms. I would like to stay in the St. Petersburg/Tampa area, I have family in this area. Although I am open to moving to florida, and I am trying to figure out where to go.

I am going to check out Florida and then plan to move there. I think in the Tampa area. So if anyone could tell me anything about the NICU's in the area that would be great. I have looked into Tampa General Hospital and All Children's Hospital.

We have infant care classes that go over everything involved in the care of a infant that goes home and the instructors try to change the education for the parents involved if possible. The instructors are staff nurses that are approved by management. We also have CPR classes that are instructed by staff nurses that are certified. The instructors do the classes as staffing allows, if the can not have an assignment or be covered by the resource nurse for the class. The March of Dimes does car seat classes.

Congrats did you do paper or computer?

I was in the middle of a busy shift in the NICU and had answered the phone often. The phone rings and I answer the phone..."Nursey 2 this is Danielle how can I help you", and the person asks for the nurse caring for baby Jack and I say "ok let me get her for you", put the person on hold and realize...oh crap:uhoh21:...that is me. There are not many ways to go back from that:no:

:yeahthat: i think that is the best explaination that anyone could ever say. you need to live in the nicu as a nurse to understand the bad and the good. there are harder things than you ever thought that you would find but there also is great good.

We used to use chlorohexide now we only use it on any admission that is not a ELBW and wipe it off with sterile water, but we use iodine on the ELBW and wipe it off with sterile water due to the amount of chlorohexadine burns. We use plain water with a small amount of baby bath for bathing.

In my hospital a level 4 regional medical center NICU We have protocols for skin care. For babies that are out of heat and stable we can give them a bath and bath them as needed. For extremely low birth weight infants we take precautions to maintain their skin, no EKG leads, tegasorb under anything stuck to the infant, iodine for cleaning the skin for blood or IV insertion and cleaning the iodine off right after done, z-flow pillows under their body, and careful sticking anything to them and moving them.