MandaAnda

Out of the maternity wards (labour ward, antenatal and postnatal), postnatal would probably get you the best exposure to babies, although all would be good experience. I think it's also a great idea to try to get in there on your current placement if you can arrange it with their neonatal unit and CCU. I think most placements are happy to facilitate things like that. Good luck!

Yes. I do think everyone would have a learning curve, but someone who did not have any placements or theory in paediatrics whatsoever (but particularly neonates) would have it a lot steeper. I still think working as a HCA on a neonatal unit would put the OP in good stead and also look brilliant on an application and in interview. I once queried this with my own unit manager, as I had a friend who was a newly qualified adult branch trained nurse. She said she'd take her interest in neonates a lot more seriously if she could back it up with evidence that she'd tried to learn more about the specialty, particularly by trying to get bank HCA shifts in the special care side. For what it's worth, only about a quarter of the nurses on my unit are child branch trained, most of which have been hired in the past five years. The majority (and more senior) nurses are adult branch trained or midwives who did a nursing conversion years ago and have gone on to do their neonatal course.

Just go onto NHS Jobs and look for jobs with nicu, nnu, scbu in the title and description within whatever radius you're willing to travel within and apply away. The recommendation is that all nurses working on a neonatal unit should be child branch trained, however recruitment into neonates is really low at the moment and a lot of units will take adult branch NQs. We hired one about 3 months ago. Prepare for a steep learning curve, as the adult branch nurse we took on is having a lot of difficulty in getting her head around it, I think. I really get the feeling she thought it was cuddling babies and not much more. To show potential employers that this is the area you want to be in, you've got to prove it. Sign onto the nursing bank at local hospitals and specifically request to work in special care as a HCA. You can then mention that in your person specification and talk about it in interview. It'll show your dedication and that you're serious. They won't want to hire someone who can't be sure that neonates is for them. Hope that helps!

Varda, I don't know about exchange programmes, but I seem to remember hearing that South Bank University did clinical placements at St Thomas'.

In the UK, a lot of phlebotomists are trained on the job. I used to be a phlebotomist in the States, worked in clinical research in the UK where I did phlebotomy as well but can't do venepuncture in my current role as a staff nurse (UK trained). It's something that I want to develop in my role though, and I mentioned that at interview.

Um, you said that already in reply to my query, back in February. See ^^.

I don't know if the immigration officer was being nosy, but when I last entered the US (in January), he asked me. I'm American but live in the UK. He asked me how long I'd been out of the country ("um, 2.5 years?"), what I do ("you mean for work? I'm a nurse.") and where ("xxx Hospital in west London."). I don't see why he needed all that information, especially as I'm an American travelling on an American passport anyway. And I really, really don't see why he wanted to know where I worked, as it's very unlikely he would know where my hospital is.

As an American who has lived in the UK throughout her 20s, I think the NHS is great on the whole. I've done my nurse training here (I do happen to like the American way of training nurses better though). I like the autonomy that a lot of nurses have here. I certainly don't mind paying towards the NHS through my taxes (makes it nice that I never "see" the money in the first place), although I do get frustrated that people who *choose not to work* get to benefit what my tax money goes towards (I don't mean stay at home mums, but I feel that it's easy to sponge off the UK benefits system). Overall, I think the care is pretty good. Working in paediatrics, I actually think too many kids get admitted to hospital for things that can be cared for in the community. My personal experience of waiting lists hasn't been bad. I had to have all four wisdom teeth out under GA, and it was only a three month wait or so. I don't think the NHS has facilities that are as sparkly new and high tech/cutting edge as the US sometimes, but it's not that high on my worry list. I think my main irritants with the NHS are that it's not standardised (you'd think it would be, but every Trust has different products for the same thing, different policies, etc.) and that the NHS must haemorrhage money treating those who aren't eligible (we have NHS cards if we're eligible for treatment on the NHS, and I really think that people should have to product that at the point of care).

My uni didn't recommend it, but they understood that most people did it. I mean, what do you expect on such a poor bursary? Aside from Trust banks and NHS Professionals, some Trusts use agency to sort out their bank, which ends up being staff and random agency. Imperial College do this, for example. They use Pulse.

We use sterile water and a square of gauze.

A lot bigger than my little ol' unit then. Makes more sense now. :wink2:

Wow. An entire job just for doing EBM? Do you have your own EBM bank or something?

We only have one healthcare assistant on our unit. EBM must always be checked with another nurse (our HCA or student nurses/midwives can also check) or the parent of that baby. When it's two nurses, we both must sign where the feed is recorded. For the most part, fortifier is all we put in EBM; and that is written up on the drug chart and signed by two nurses (the HCA can also do this but not students).

FusionFire, I'm not sure which ward Dayo went to, but I had placement at St Mary's for three months as a student. Great Western is the general paediatric ward, Grand Union is the infectious diseases/haematology ward and there is also a day care unit (can't remember the name) and a PICU - all paediatric and on the 7th floor of the QEQM Building. There's a NICU in a separate building. St Mary's is one of the easiest hospitals to get to, as it's right beside Paddington station. I live just outside of West London, and I was able to get there in under 20 minutes every day.

We have the paediatric phlebotomist come do venepunctures every Tuesday morning on whoever needs them. Outside of that, the doctors or senior nurses will do venepunctures. If it's just a CBG, the doctors/senior nurses will do that via heel stick (we get our SBRs this way as well, as it comes out on the gas - if it's past a certain level, they try to get enough to send to the lab, as the gas machine becomes questionable after a certain level). If it's just a blood sugar or Gent level, it's a heelstick. And of course, we try to combine things - so, before one of my intensive babies is next due it's umpteenth blood sugar, I check to make sure the doctors aren't about to do some other bloods via venepuncture anyway.