BabyNurse513

Hi everyone, long time lurker here, have not posted in a long time but really need some advice. After 7 years of working in a Level 3 NICU I am applying for a job in L&D/High-RIsk OB. It has always been an interest of mine and I am excited about the change. I am sure there will be a lot of competition for this job and since I don't have an actual L&D experience I am trying to do whatever I can to increase my chances of getting the job. I have not had an interview yet (HR said they would be taking applications for 6-8 weeks before they call anyone for interviews and it has been about 3 weeks since the job was posted) However I have a friend who works for the hosital where I am applying for the job at (not as a nurse but for the ob/gyn dept). She was kind enough to give me the contact info for the nurse manager but now that I have it, I don't know what exactly to do with it? Call, e-mail? Not really sure what to say either, without seeming like a total suck up. Any advice for me? Thanks so much for listening!

Sorry about your situation. I used to work in that unit and unless it has changed drastically in the last couple of years I know how frustrating it is. They are horrible about pain management and there is no teamwork and a serious lack of support from the managment. I don't have any new advice, just know what you are going through. Remember, take care of yourself first, and don't let this situation turn you off from NICU nursing or nursing all together. I've been there, it's that unit environment. I could go on but feel free to PM me if you want to talk about it.

I know this was brought up on another thread but try reading "Baby at Risk: The Uncertain Legacies of Medical Miracles for Babies, Families, and Society" by Ruth Levy Guyer.

I have worked in 3 NICU's, one in the midwest and 2 on the east coast. In my experiences they have all generally waited until we knew discharge was approaching and then we would remove all rolls, lay the head of the bed flat and put the baby on thier backs to sleep. Until then though, rolls, swaddling, and prone positioning were fine.

I think Miami Children's is the big NICU for that area. I had a friend who was a traveler there and from what I remember she liked it but that was 3 years ago.

We use bactroban in our NICU for MRSA colonization, i thought that was standard practice?

Generational Differences 1. What generation do you belong to? Generation X (born between 1961-1980) 2. How long have you been a nurse? 5 years 3. In your opinion what is your generation's strongest & weakest points (in terms of work ethics, problem-solving strategies, etc.) Strong point - I think a lot more nurses in my generation are going for advanced degrees than previous generations. Weak point - Some can become very cocky about it 4. Can you cite an experience/incident when you were in conflict with a co-worker mainly because of generational difference? How did you solve the conflict? In my experience, some of the older more traditional nurses have been more resistant to change. There have been amazing advances in neonatal nursing over the years but some of the traditional nurses are very set in their ways. I have been met with resistance on such topics like kangaroo care, developmental care, and bubble cpap. What I found works is education, education, education (with plenty of research articles to back you up!)

Out of curiosity how many beds is your unit? Level? How many nurses do you staff per shift?

Our visititation policy allows siblings of the baby to visit, regardless of age, (personally I don't agree with that but that is for another thread) and we take their temps all year round but no adult temps.

In my unit, we keep all infants less than 27 weeks midline for the first 7 days of life, vented or on CPAP, to prevent IVH.

Our holidays are paired in 3 groups. Memorial day and Thanksgiving, 4th of July and Christmas and Labor Day with New Years Eve. We rotate each year so this year I worked Labor day and New years, next year I will work Memorial day and Thanksgiving etc. It is really nice having to only work 2 holidays a year especially the winter holidays. Having Thansgiving and Christmas off this year was great! Summer holidays you only work the day of, winter holdays it is the eve and the day except thanksgiving which is the day of and the day after. You are allowed to trade as long as everything is covered. This is the third hospital I have worked in and the best and most fair holiday polcy.

I work in a 50 bed Level 3+ ECMO, Surgery etc. It is a Children's Hospital so we don't do deliveries. We usually have a charge nurse and a second charge nurse each shift that don't have assignments. The charge nurse tends to do more admin stuff, staffing etc. while the second charge is more of a hands on helper. Second charge is available to help staff with anything...taking babies off the unit for tests/procedures, IV starts, helping with admissions, discharges, transfers, covering for breaks, stuff like that. We have a separate transport team so we don't have to worry about that. It is so helpful, especially when our unit is busy, which is 95% of the time. It really works out well for us.

None of the NICU's in Columbus take travelers. I was in your position a year and half ago. I personally called and spoke with the managers and none were interested in taking travelers so I ended up taking a staff position. If you would like info about Cols. NICU's, feel free to PM me.

Our policy is to flush all PIV's q8 with heparin. The only exception are the babies that are on ECMO.

We have 10units/1ml vials on our unit that we use for heplocking PIV's. If pharmacy stocked 10,000u/ml that could be a problem.