Semper_Gumby

When my husband comes home from his job in the afternoons, he makes sure to be very quiet even on days I'm not working, because he says, "You need your rest!" He is more protective of my sleep than I am lol. Even on days I let him know it's ok to wake me a little early, he usually doesn't, because he recognizes how important it is for me to be well rested when I have lives in my hands. I don't know what the solution is for you, but I suggest a heart to heart not only on the issue of adequate sleep and health, but on the basic issue of respect for you as his wife and life partner. His actions do not demonstrate that he truly cares (and he's a grown man, he should be able to find things himself, and if he can't, then he can wait and ask you when you get up!) or respects you as a person, and that's something that needs to be addressed sooner than later, before it manifests in other areas. He may sincerely not realize how disrespectful he is being. Here's hoping you can get things figured out!

The internet strikes again...

Holy cow, SEVEN couplets?! That's insane!

You had two weeks of orientation as a new grad? Well, I had two shifts more than you and you know what? It wasn't enough. Two weeks is nowhere near enough time for a new graduate nurse to both learn their new job and specialty, practice critical thinking, hone assessment and time management skills, etc. while putting all these pieces together, especially in a specialty area. I was in newborn nursery, which has generally pretty stable patients, but again, it was not enough time. It was, in fact, dangerous. I was terrified before coming in for every shift because I recognized just how much I didn't know and I was scared a baby might have a less than optimal outcome due to my lack of experience and knowledge. I didn't want to be "coddled." I just wanted to be prepared. If you were not in a constant state of anxiety and worry that what you didn't know in those early days could potentially lead to patient harm, I wonder about your level of self-awareness. There's no new nurse scarier than one who thinks she knows it all (and one was hired a few months after me and had us all worried there for a while till she realized she didn't know it all). In sum, you were not a safe nurse when you started practicing and your facility was putting patients at risk. Oh, and as for your questioning the OP's experience? Believe it or not, there's still facilities that will chew up and spit out nurses. Sounds like yours was one of them. OP, my second nursing job oriented me for a month and a half (twelve preceptors in this time), led me to believe all was going well, and then pulled me into the office to blindside me with unkind remarks about my assessment and critical thinking skills. They made a show of giving me time to correct my mistakes, but in reality it was less than a shift's worth of time before they terminated me. It was humiliating and hurtful but I picked myself up, relocated and found another job for which I'm much better suited. I spent some time analyzing the whole experience and what I could have done differently and I feel I came in much better prepared for my current position (in a hospital twice the size of the previous one, which was already quite large). I also learned some valuable lessons about human nature which I will carry for the rest of my career. Spend some time in thought about all that happened and what you could have done differently but absolutely do not take the remarks of your management to heart. Those comments were vicious and uncalled for. Yes, the transition from student to nurse can be a challenge but the fact that she is not interested in investing in her staff is probably part of the reason she can't keep them (that's part of why my first job had such intense turnover that the majority of us had less than five years' experience). Shake it off and move on to better and brighter things. You can and will make this transition successfully; don't let the cruel remarks shake your confidence and cause you to doubt yourself. You're intelligent and capable. You've got this.

Four babies is a lot! And confidence will come with time. One day you'll be in the midst of a task you previously found hard and think, "I know this!" and you'll feel really proud of yourself for getting to that point. If you never had a NICU rotation or preceptorship and never had newborn experience, that adds to the learning curve because you're learning assessments and babies at the same time as everything else. I knew babies pretty well but hadn't had much experience with IV's or NG feeds or TPN so I was pretty slow with them. I'm faster now and know that speed comes with time as well. Juggling the alternating feed schedules can be a challenge but you'll learn how to best prioritize for that. :)

Never worked there so I'm no help but I did live in the area for a little while, and seem to recall that some of the apartments immediately near the hospital were a little sketchy. We lived in Winterville, which is right next to Greenville near the community college. The good thing is that there's plenty of apartments to choose from, the bad thing is sussing out the better ones (some are also student only type apartments). If you end up down here, I hope you enjoy it! Greenville's a nice little city and pretty friendly. Hopefully someone who's been there more recently than me can help you out (I counted back and realized it was 7 years ago!).

Oh! Forgot to add--absolutely make taking a break a priority. Sometimes getting out of the unit for five, ten, fifteen minutes, taking a breather, getting a drink or snack, is all you need to be refreshed to keep going for a few more hours. It can help clear some of the frustration too. And I, personally, do not work well when hungry as it gets hard to focus after 8 hours without food--your brain needs some fuel! Ask someone to watch your babies, however your unit does that, and slip out for a few minutes so you can gather your thoughts and re-focus. Take care of yourself.

You're brand new in a brand new specialty. You're getting hundreds of pieces of information thrown at you all at the same time. It'll take time for all the pieces to really come together. It's like putting together a really big, complicated puzzle. You WILL get there, you just have to be patient with yourself. I came from healthy babies and still found it a hard transition because it's a completely different set of priorities and time management. If a mom comes in and wants to feed but you're finishing up another baby, she'll be fine to wait a few minutes. Maybe she can take a temperature and change the diaper while she waits, if your unit does that. Running back and forth between your babies will cost you time. You're only one person and you can't be everywhere at once! Does your unit do alternating schedules (8-11-2-5 and 9-12-3-6) for cares and feeds? For example, if you have two on the same schedule and have a baby whose feed drips over a longer period of time, try to do them on the earlier side of the care time so the feed doesn't get started late. Does your unit have lactation consultants? Both places I've worked, they're the only ones who prescribe nipple shields and they can, at the least, teach you the basics of using them and assisting with breastfeeding (you'll get the hang of it!). One thing that helped me starting out was to make a list of everything that needed to be done during care times and go over it and over it in my head and go through the list as I did cares. I still recite a list in my head on my way to work of what I need to do to get started on my shift (get report, scrub in, check orders, prep feeds, get meds, etc.). It can be a challenge when things are chaotic around you, and you'll have to figure out how to focus on what you're doing in spite of the external "noise." Like Guy said, focus on one thing at a time for now until you can do more. You've only been there two weeks. You are a novice! Have grace for yourself. You can do this. Also, maybe think back to when you were a brand new nurse and think about what helped you back then, figuring out your routine on the floor, and see what principles you can apply from that experience. Maybe chat with your preceptor about how you learn best (do you know?) and what things they can do to support you learning so many new things. You've got this.

I gave a little card with a nice note, and a small Amazon gift card as I figured she could buy herself a book or some other little thing she'd been wanting but hadn't spent the money on for herself.

Being in a new city at your first nursing job is tough. Relax! You're new at this and it takes time to feel comfortable in a new place, new job, new role, etc. Give yourself grace. You've been given some good advice and I would only add, don't be so busy focusing on and telling yourself all the things you're doing wrong that you miss the things you're doing right. Celebrate the small victories. It gets better. Good luck!

OP, I actually had the same experience of realizing I didn't want the super-sick babies, but I realized it less than halfway through orientation and transferred into the progressive/step-down nursery which takes mostly NICU grads who need to learn to eat and grow. We still get a pretty varied patient population as we get ex-preemies on nasal cannula or high flow, neuro babies, kids who we send for g-tube surgery and then get back from NICU after recovery, lots of NAS kids, plus all the feeder-growers who don't need level IV care. Eventually I'd like to move up in the level of care but not at this NICU, which frequently has several kids on oscillators and head cooling, plus plenty of vent/NAVA/bubble CPAP. Too much adrenaline for me! Stick it out for at least a year and then look for a level III almost anywhere you want to go and you will probably find something more to your liking. I precepted in a level III in nursing school which took up to 28 weekers and was mostly feeder-growers, and absolutely loved it! I'll probably eventually look for something more like that. Best of luck!

Hi there, sorry, I just saw this and I know it's too late, but for anyone else reading, the best preparation I can suggest is getting familiar with the hospital's mission and vision, preparing answers to common interview questions, dress professionally, and be yourself. There weren't a ton (or any, really) NICU-specific questions asked other than things like why NICU and why do you want to work here. Hope your interview went well, best of luck to you!

I was newborn nursery, not mother-baby, but I do recall the moms got vitals 3x per day (I believe it was q4 for a set time after a C-section, then 3x per day), something like 0600, 1400, and 2000. Babies were q2h x5 and then twice a shift, no set times. For the 0000-0600 stretch I usually tried to do it when baby was awake, or be as quiet as possible. I'd often pair it with bilis & PKUs.

I'm sorry you're going through this. Like the others said, per ToS we cannot give medical advice, and this thread will likely be closed, but we CAN wish you and your family the best, and the best for your niece's recovery.

When I graduated, my school recommended the Saunders NCLEX review, and the Prioritization, Delegation and Assignment book, and to do approximately 100 practice questions per day, complete with understanding the rationales for both what you got wrong AND what you got right (UWorld wasn't around but it seems pretty great). They said the ones who did this almost always passed. So I always recommend the 100 questions per day to graduates studying for the NCLEX. We had a 98-100% pass rate for years running, so I guess they were doing something right!