babyNP.

I wouldn't extend that to all specialties though- certainly neonatology requires a certain amount of NICU experience to become a good NNP. It's not actually a requirement to take the board exam from the NCC although in practicality virtually all schools have 2 years of RN experience in NICU. This is why neonatal PAs do a yearlong fellowship to be competent.

Hi Joanne, mine expires in June as well, perhaps we can help each other. Feel free to PM me, I'm located in the US

You might want to call them up directly and ask in case you get a canned answer, but I doubt they will accept it. Things may have changed since post a few years ago, but they still make people who have a BSN taught in English take an English language competency exam as I understand it. It's so bizarre. If you are thinking of living in the UK for a long time, think hard on this because you don't want to do a US nursing degree and end up having to do a UK course as well.

Interesting topic! I am happy to report that the number of NNPs taking their boards is growing and programs are increasing, not decreasing at this point. That being said, yes there are a growing number of neonatal PAs (and I work with several, they are great. they usually do a 1 year fellowship solely focused on neonatology) and some units will use PNPs. What adventure_RN is referring to is likely the corporate companies that are for-profit. I think it's crazy to be work extra shifts with little compensation or few raises in salary. I would recommend academic centers. They usually pay well and some have a network of community hospitals so that you don't necessarily only need to work at a Level 4. We are among the highest (if not the highest) NP specialties for pay and I don't see that changing- we are intensivists that bring good revenue to the hospital.

I do wonder what the rest of the story was. I mean, a nurse can't just unilaterally make CPS hold a baby for 24 hours. Maybe a drug history or unsafe parenting. Plus hospital admin would be involved and would need to sign off on it. I have placed several babies on an administrative hold that were medically clear for discharge but not able to socially clear.

The child is 10 years old now. I wonder what happened? I do wish allnurses had a way to automatically lock posts that are old.

The devil's advocate in me thinks this sounds like a small community Level 2 nursery. What is your average daily census? Most Level 2 NICUs are not able to stay open unless they can float to other units as needed due to low census issues. At several of the Level 2 places where I work, the nurses are trained to 2 areas out of L&D, post-partum, and nursery. It's hard to staff with just dedicated NICU nurses when you only have 1-2 babies or 0 babies at a time. Is this a critical access hospital? There is also the issue that it's great you have 20+ year veteran nurses, but with such a small number of staff, if a few of them go out on LOA or retire, then the hospital will be up a creek if they didn't train any of the younger generation. Running a Level 3 would be different but as you get a higher census, this will become more apparent to have a dedicated NICU staff. I doubt you will go straight to 22-24 weekers though- what is gestational age limit now and then plans for what? Most "new" Level 3 units will go down to 28-30 weekers first. What gestational age do you currently take and do you do CPAP and short term ventilators? At the end of the day, you can bring your concerns to your manager. If you have a union, I would recommend bringing it up to them. But if it feels really unsafe then it sounds like your options are to look for another facility.

What is the clinical setting?

Sorry for the late response. I almost RNC-NIC go but then decided to give it one more 3 year cycle and since then my employer has paid for it as part of our CME $$ we get so I figured why not keep it? The maintenance is almost identical. I keep it now also since I run a small online business that helps nurses review for the RNC-NIC, LRN (low risk), ELBW, NNIC (neuro), and NNP exams. If I didn't have either factor going on and had to pay, I might consider dropping it. If you're unsure, I would recommend keeping it one more cycle and then considering when you get to it again in 3 years. But if you have LRN and NIC I would probably drop the LRN one.

I work in-patient in a NICU and don't do any call time as far as being at home- we are 100% in house and get paid 1:1 hours even if we are lucky to get a few hours of sleep in the call room.

that's a big commitment for a couple hundred dollars or less! No, you can "earn" CEU that counts for both. I do that for my RNC-NIC and NNP-BC titles

I am confused- does everyone come to work, trading units each day? How many beds is the unit? In most units, floating is a normal part of life of a nurse and in most cases, it's usually done on a rotation, "who did it last" with new grads getting 6 months to a year reprieve when they are more experienced. When I worked at Level 4 children's hospital, it was based on who did it last and I floated to PICU every 8-10 months or so for a shift. At smaller hospitals where I've worked, there was a float pool for the birth center, meaning a group of nurses came to work not knowing where they would work but floated to L&D, post partum, or NICU based on the unit needs.

The upkeep probably isn't too bad since a lot of it will cross over, but can your employer pay for the certifications? You don't have to list all your titles out when signing your name. But if you want to keep just one, I would keep the RNC-NIC

Can you take a pharm class at another school?

Where did you do your original nurse training?