babiesRmylife

This is normal. This is how it's always been any place I have worked! Unless you have great staffing some places will do every 3rd weekend, but I believe most hospitals are every other. Welcome to nursing!

TRUTH! I was really tired coming home from work one morning & I was going 10 mph over the speed limit. I didn't have my badge on, but I was still wearing scrubs & my work back was sitting in my passenger seat. I was pulled over & the cop asked if I was a nurse & where at. He took my information & came back with a warning. I told him thank you & that I really appreciate it. Sometimes this completely works. I'm not going to press my luck or take advantage of it though.

Okay...so complete randomness, BUT what types of scrubs & styles do you like? I've recently gained some weight, , & am having a hard time finding scrubs. I'm short (5'1") & 'chubby' now. Thanks for your help with my randomness.

The first page only loaded one question, but after you hit next you start to get the remainder of the survey. Every time you hit next more questions will appear.

Currently: If infants were eating before the transfusion then they will NOT be made NPO at this time in our unit. There has been much talk about making ALL babies NPO for X amount of time before & after transfusions because they think low blood counts that require transfusions could be a very early sign of NEC. This has not yet started in our unit, but I think it is in the works & all the fine details are being worked out.

Peds- you will learn A LOT more medication, conditions, etc. If you decide later that you want to do NICU then your skill set will already have a great foundation! Personally, my heart has ALWAYS been in the NICU, so that is where I work. Just know that if you decide you don't want to do this later you can still switch. It's probably not as hard to switch for somebody else who has done med-surg or peds, etc. I believe that any new job you will learn what you need with TIME & constant exposure to different things. In an interview you just have to let them know that you are willing to learn & open to it.

We scrub in when we first arrive in the unit. Parents are to also scrub before they come into the unit. If you touch any personal item (purse, phone, wheelchairs, etc.) or body (face, glasses, etc.) you are to wash or put hand sanitizer on your hands. If we have babies in isolation we must gown & glove (mask if droplet precautions), but we do NOT make parents do this. Parents are to wash before they leave the isolation room. Nurses wear a gown when holding or feeding infants to protect you & your scrubs from spreading germs. Sometimes nurses have assignments where you need to pick up multiple infants throughout your shift so you need to protect you & them from spreading germs. If you are doing anything where you might touch bodily fluid (spit, emesis, saliva, snot, poop/pee, blood, etc.)- wear gloves. Same goes during lab time- wear gloves. You can contact CMV, among other things, if you are in contact with body fluids that have CMV (not all hospitals test all babies until they show potential symptoms) without some sort of protective barrier.

First off, EXCELLENT work on researching & seeking out advice for the road to your potential future. I think thats an AMAZING idea!!! My personal opinion, I would go ahead & get your BSN if its feasible. How I worked towards my BSN, I went to a community college & got my AS degree (Associates of Science). Then I transferred all those credits to a 4yr college to go to nursing school. If this sounds like something your interested in you need to contact your community college & 4yr college to see if your credits will transfer from one school to the other, & if they will only accept X amount of credit hours from another school. Lastly, see if there are any other pre-req's that the 4yr college may need you to take before applying & starting nursing school. (Sorry if this is confusing) If you want to go back to school be an NNP or a practitioner of any kind having your BSN will bring you one step closer to starting NNP school. I know that NNP school you have to have at least 1 year experience when you apply & 2 years of NICU experience by the time you start your clinical rotation for NNP. This may not be how all schools are, but the school a few of my friends go to this is their requirements. While your in school for BSN you will study & do clinical's in several different areas. I have ALWAYS known I wanted to be a NICU nurse, as well, so during my critical care rotation I was in the NICU & this sealed the deal for me. Clinical time also gave me an idea of other areas I would be interested in & others I don't think would be a good fit for me. There are SOME hospitals that won't hire new-grad's into the NICU, they would like you to have 1 year pediatric experience as an RN. The hospital I work at WILL hire new-grads, so don't let this get to you until you know what your future hospital requires. I hope that this answers some of your questions. Feel free to ask if you think of anything else. Good luck in your journey!

First off, EXCELLENT work on researching & seeking out advice for the road to your potential future. I think thats an AMAZING idea!!! My personal opinion, I would go ahead & get your BSN if its feasible. Especially, if you want to go back to school be an NNP or a practitioner of any kind. I know that NNP school you have to have at least 1 year experience when you apply & 2 years of NICU experience by the time you start your clinical rotation for NNP. This may not be how all schools are, but the school a few of my friends go to this is their requirements. While your in school for BSN you will study & do clinical's in several different areas. I have ALWAYS known I wanted to be a NICU nurse, as well, so during my critical care rotation I was in the NICU & this sealed the deal for me. Clinical time also gave me an idea of other areas I would be interested in & others I don't think would be a good fit for me. There are SOME hospitals that won't hire new-grad's into the NICU, they would like you to have 1 year pediatric experience as an RN. The hospital I work at WILL hire new-grads, so don't let this get to you until you know what your future hospital requires. I hope that this answers some of your questions. Feel free to ask if you think of anything else. Good luck in your journey!

It kind of depends on the area you live in too. I applied to a lot of jobs before & again after moving here. There are quite a few job listings on & off. Some of it depends on what you are willing to do & others of it is that people/companies/offices are short staffed, but are still being extremely picky on who they are willing to hire. I know currently A LOT of people are quitting in my unit, but they have high expectations on who they will hire here. At some point when your 7-8 people down on 1 shift you have to start hiring new grads or people will lesser experience. Besides they have to learn & get experience one way or another.

Mine only took about 3-4 weeks. I did call after about 2 weeks to check on my application.

We always mix our milk like that, I say no problemo. Plus, thats how we would fortify our milk is by adding formula to it.

In my old hospital we had medication scanning & so we used a barcoding system & scanned our breastmilk just like a medication. It was AMAZING!!!! Super easy. All we had to do was scan the infants bedside barcode then scan the breastmilk bottle. Then scan the infants bedside barcode again & whatever you put the breakmilk in that you labeled with their breastmilk label. That way you doubled checked the milk you drew your milk from & then you checked whatever you put your milk into with the label you stuck it on to. Sounds confusing but its really not & it definately decreased the incidence of giving the wrong breastmilk.

so extremely sad! Praying everybody involved. I'm glad nurses all over are standing up about the situation. And Kudos to her friend for leaving the organization.

We change ours out Q7days. We would place a piece of tape with the date & shift it needed changed on the plastic edge under the isolette doors. :)

agree with all the above! I also want to add that with kids that stay in the unit for a long time, you become like family sometimes to these parents. You ride the roller coaster with these children & their family & sometimes you better understand what these parents are going through better then their families. They will talk to you about all kinds of things if you allow yourself to be open to listen & actually talk to them. Never see yourself as better, etc. I couldn't imagine ever having a baby in the NICU. I mean thats the 1 unit NOBODY usually plans on being. I know that a lot of the kids I've taken care of over the years have become just like my own sometimes. When your passionate about what you do, the parents can tell, & they feel much better about leaving their precious little life in your hands. I've become good friends with some of the parents & had the pleasure of seeing the kiddos as they grow up. Its amazing!

I'm also around the Pensacola area & the pay here isn't that great. $20-25, & benefits are not that great either. And I'm currently trying to get out of my NICU position & change to adults. I want to expand my knowledge & learn a new trade. I've applied to seriously 20 jobs & not a single call back!!!!!!

handbook of neonatal intensive care (paperback) by [color=#003399]gerald b. merenstein md faap (author), [color=#003399]sandra lee gardner rn ms cns pnp (author) its full of loads of information, but honestly you'll just learn how your unit does things. all units do things so very very differently it'll be a learning process. pros i love my babies & what i do. i love how my old unit did things, very structured, it was very into parent/infant bonding etc. cons-realize that some kids die its just reality, it isn't always happy, & your going to see & hear about all kinds of bad/interesting things. children have an unimaginable will to live sometimes. i think they deal with more pain & have more will to live than any adult sometimes would ever be able to handle.

it took a couple weeks to get my endorsement. Plus it depends on how busy that the board is. You can always call the state board to check on your endorsement app!

i have only been at my new nicu job for about 2 months now & i hate it. i know hate is strong but i cannot tell you how many tears i have cried. i'm frequently frustrated by the way things are done. i was at my old unit for 3 1/2yrs & this unit is extremly different. we were hand-washing & policy nazi's! if you didn't know something there was surly a policy that would direct you on how to do it. it was amazing! excellent standard of care. at my new hospital, policies are hard to find to nonexistent, we have no medication scanning so a 2nd nurse has to check everything. we dilute heparin which to me is an accident waiting to happen. doctors aren't even on the same page. 1 doctor will get mad if another doctor touches/changes things on their patients while that doctor was gone, or this doctor will do one thing for ivh or whatever, but this doctor won't. there's not even a standard of practice between doctors, so how is there going to be standards of practice in between nurses? the next nicu is over an hour away. i'm thinking about trying the adult world out, but who is going to hire a nurse that's only done infants for almost 4yrs?! and then what if i don't like that job!? what am i supposed to do then!? i guess i'm just overwhelmed & i don't know what to do. i don't feel safe practicing at the hospital i'm at. i'm also a little frustrated with the benefits, most the pto. i'm also new to the state, so i'm at a loss. thanks any helpful incite would be great.

I think you can apply for an endorsement right away. Just email the state board & ask. I don't see why it would matter

my old hospital used meditech to do med scanning & I LOVE LOVE LOVED it. I have no experience as far as charting on it. My new hospital uses McKesson as their computer charting & I HATE it. Its doubule & trip charting. Not very user friendly at all. . .nor does it have computer med scanning. Not wise, not wise at all.

I just applied for my Endorsement into FL & I've been an NICU nurse for 3 1/2yrs. I honestly hope the process won't take very long. I found an old page (2004) where some people were saying it was taking them 6 MONTHS to get their license. UGH! I also applied for a job, so praying I hear something soon. Please tell me that I'm not going to have to wait 6months & that my experience will work to my advantage?!

I don't believe the TYPE of unit you choose to work on has anything to do with burnout. Simply choose a unit you feel suits you best. I think some of the things that cause "burn out" are poor management, lack of interest &/or ability to further knowledge/adapt to change, working too much overtime, & politics. If you don't feel like your concerns are heard or are not being managed makes it hard to want to come to work. It's also hard if you have an "invisible manager." One thats never there, you never see, & never takes care of anything. Also NEVER EVER feel guilted into working over time. You MUST take care of yourself before you can ever take care of your patients. Politics are hard to step around there's always a little everywhere you go (I think), but some places are "extreme" which can be overwhelming.

it is a closed system but you are introuducing something into that closed system so it should be a sterile to keep from introducing any type of bacteria into the line. I believe its just to be extra cautious in doing that.