rnay312

I'm a NICU nurse and attend deliveries frequently. I hear the circumcision and weight question occasionally, but my favorite is a father's response to his newborn's molded cone head: "Is it going to stay that way?" I know they're saying it out of genuine concern and a huge adrenaline rush, but there would be a lot of funny looking adults if cone heads stayed cone heads forever.

Hi all, I have worked in a Level II NICU for about 2.5 years. I absolutely love my job. Luckily, our babies are mostly stable so deaths are few and far between, but I knew I wouldn't be spared forever. A few nights ago we had a baby born with a very low chance of survival. This little boy only lived for a very peaceful couple of hours as his parents didn't want any extreme measures taken. Because we were so incredibly busy, as NICU charge I was the only person available to perform bereavement care. After he passed I completed his photographs and his foot prints and plates, as well as all the paperwork and getting things settled with his parents. I have to say, I handled it so much better than I thought I would. Of course, there were tears, but I feel like I was composed when it was most important. There is something so intimate about providing this care. I feel honored to have been such a big part in helping this family grieve and being able to provide them with tokens of their son's memory. It was devastating, yet in a way, it was beautiful. I just wanted to share my feelings on the experience for any new or prospective NICU nurses worried about this aspect of working with sick newborns. It is so different than I anticipated. I do realize this was much different than a code situation, however, I will no longer be fearful of the actual postmortem and bereavement care. I imagine this is similar to the feeling that draws people to work in hospice. I understand the beauty in it now, which is something I never thought I would say.

I eat dinner (my breakfast) before I go in, have a snack at 2200, eat lunch at 0100, have a snack at 0500, and eat breakfast (my dinner) when I get home. I love to eat. I eat healthy food, but probably way too much of it. It's the best part of my shift!

I was in almost exactly the same situation, except I called in 15 minutes before my shift. I felt a little queasy but brushed it off to nerves, but as soon as I got in the car I started vomiting. I cried when I spoke to the charge, I felt so bad. But there is no way I could have worked, I was sick and vomiting every 15-20 minutes until about 0300. I was also a nurse for less than a year. I very rarely call in, maybe once a year at most. I understand feeling guilty, but sometimes you just can't help it! Don't worry about it. Move on. I don't even think about it anymore, and it never happened again. You'd feel worse if you passed on that stomach bug to other coworkers or your patients!

1. Arizona 2. 3 years experience 3. NICU 4. $29.99/hr 5. $5.20/hr flat differential for night shift 6. No union

This is beautiful and heart wrenching.

I am an anxious person in general (not to the point of having to be medicated, I've never taken a benzo in my life.) But I think it can be a good stress that drives me to do a good job at work, to always reassess and let MDs know if I don't feel right about something, and to always ask questions if I am unsure about something. I am the queen of "better safe than sorry." The thing is, I used to work on a high stress neuro unit for over 2 years. THAT job was stressful. Couplets is absolutely wonderful in comparison. I take time to relax on my days off. I just thought it was interesting that they're recurrent. I'm not stressing or afraid to sleep over it, I just wondered if anyone else had a similar experience. I'll have to check out the other threads. Thanks for the responses!

Hi all, I'm just curious if anyone has recurrent bad dreams about work. I have this dream about once a month - that it's 0300 (I work 1900-0730) and I haven't done my initial assessments or passed out 2100 meds yet. I haven't even seen a patient yet, and I always think, "What the heck have I been doing for the last 8 hours?!" I've recently started working Couplets, and had a dream last week that I dropped three babies during my shift. I totally forgot about this dream until I was actually working and a dad was handing his baby to me. It was a frightening flashback to have right at that moment! And one more... My dream job is to work in the NICU, and I had a dream that I was working there and lost twin patients. It is extremely morbid but the sight of their gray lifeless bodies was so disturbing to me, and in my dream I thought, "I can't do this." When I woke up I was fine, and I realize that these things are most likely going to happen. My husband said it was ironic of me to have a nightmare about my dream job. I'm typically a very happy and positive person, but I am extremely critical of myself and wonder if this has anything to do with it. Anyone else have weird work-related dreams?

I have a similar story. I was a nursing student watching a lady partsl hysterectomy, wearing all the surgical garb. The nurse I was assigned to told me if I start to feel faint to just sit in a chair against the wall and she'd get me a cold washcloth. I was too confident and told her it wouldn't be a problem - I had been so excited to finally watch a surgery! Lo and behold, ten minutes in things were going blurry and I felt very lightheaded. I told her, sat in the chair and she got a washcloth. I was fine after a few minutes. Now instead if saying some snarky comment like, "That's like a sailor being afraid of water," everyone in the room did what they could to make me feel better. The surgeon laughed and the anesthesiologist told me he actually fainted his first day. I wouldn't worry too much about it. I used to be nauseas while cleaning up poop, and to this day I cannot watch needles injected into skin on TV. However, I give babies vaccines every day at work and frequently start and D/C patients' IVs. It's so different when you're doing those things yourself. You're more focused on getting the task done right instead of the whole "blood and guts/this is gross" thing. You don't really have time to feel faint. That nurse was not right to make that comment. It's hard enough being a student; no need for kicking low confidence levels when they are already down! All the best.

I don't really have any advice other than be yourself, but I just wanted to say congratulations and I'm jealous!! Good luck!

Is this serious? Two and a half hours of break time when you only get one unpaid half hour? Do you work in the US?

I get excited too! In fact, I got that call tonight!

I've been a nurse for just over a year on a neuro unit and trust me, at four months all I wanted to do was run away. But I stuck to it knowing that the feeling is completely normal (sick to my stomach and absolutely dreading to go in!) But right as I hit my 8 month mark of being on my own, things started to fall into place. Now it's been 14 months (and 11 on my own) and I really like my job now. I can handle the stress better, and most of all, I learn something new every day that will help me in the next stressful situation. I do, however, work nights, which is calmer on a neuro unit, but I don't know how much calmer it is on L&D. Maybe you should switch over for a while? I promise, even though it doesn't seem like it will, it DOES GET BETTER. It just takes time and practice. Good luck!

And for the record, I don't think CNAs are paid nearly enough either. It doesn't matter that an RN has more of an educational background, CNA jobs are physically demanding and worth a heck of a lot more than someone flipping burgers at Mickey D's.

I disagree. They did not truly know what they were getting into. You do not realize the enormous responsibility shouldered by nurses until it's on YOUR shoulders. Maybe it's not entirely exhausting in the realm of physical work, but emotionally and intellectually it can be extremely draining. I love my job, I love my patients, and I appreciate the paycheck, but sometimes you just can't put a price on what a nurse does. Not that I condone the complaining that they don't make enough money, but like CrunchRN said, I don't think nurses are paid enough for WHAT THEY DO.

A total of 100 minutes of radiation to my orbital muscles cost $36,000. Thank goodness for decent insurance. It is absolutely ridiculous. I could have bought a car or two with that money. But I'm thankful my eyes aren't popping out of my head and that I can close my eyes when I sleep! :) (Exopthalmos from Grave's.)

Whoa. To answer your question, no, nose rings are generally not allowed, though my facility doesn't mind. I have a tiny nose stud and have had no issues. I go to work, care for my patients and give them 100%. My nose ring places no limitation on my capacity to care for my patients, nor does it make me less of a professional, and reasonable people understand that.

I did an ADN program for a few reasons: they accepted me first, it was inexpensive and it had a higher percentage of people passing the NCLEX on the first attempt. There were long wait lists at both the university and community college in my town. I ended up spending less than $10,000 for my entire college education, including books and supplies. I have no student loans, paid for my education myself and I lived on my own for the last two years of school. Now the hospital I work at does an RN-BSN program for which they pay 75% of the tuition. Unfortunately I had planned to do it right out of school, but the stress of being a new grad was enough on my plate. I plan on starting early next year. But in all honesty, I don't know if I'll ever get around to it. I have no interest in management and there is no compensation where I work to have your BSN over an ADN. Although, I think I would like to be a clinical instructor for a nursing program one day. I was lucky; my parents were just happy I was going to college at all. I was completely uninterested in living the typical "college life", and to this day I don't regret my decision at all. It's all up to you. Either way, you will be an RN. It's such a great career; even though it can be extremely successful at times, I go home feeling that I did something meaningful. If you have the determination to get your BSN and you know you'll actually do it, I have to say go the ADN route and find a hospital that will assist with furthering your education, but I'm biased. :)

Thank you so much for the nice replies. I do feel better, and by better I mean less guilty as well as physically. Sometimes I feel that managers don't even take into consideration that going in sick puts our patients at risk, they just want a warm body on the floor and a name on the assignment sheet. But luckily I work with a pretty great group of people.

Hi all, I think I'm just looking for someone to tell me not to feel bad here, but my goodness, I just feel awful. I try not to call in unless it's really bad. I take my job very seriously and don't want to make it any harder for the staff with one less nurse. Last night was my third shift out of three 12's for the week. I woke up at 2pm after only 5 hours of sleep, which usually isn't a big deal for me. I can work fine on less than 7-8 hours of sleep. At 4pm I started feeling a little crummy, little cough and scratchy throat but no fever. I figured I can work through it. Then at 6:15pm I started feeling a little nauseous, but still no big deal. Then, as I'm walking to my car to leave at 20 til 7pm, I started vomiting. If I felt better afterward I think I would have stomached it and gone in, but I still felt like crap. So I called in, feeling so guilty I was almost to the point of crying and the CNL couldn't understand what I was saying. So embarrassing. He was very nice about it and said they would manage, but they are always nice about it until they hang up. :) I was up all night vomiting, finally feeling better now. I just feel so incredibly guilty for screwing over my coworkers at such last minute. Also, we have a policy that if you call in after 5, it's considered a no-call, no-show, which I understand to a point but I couldn't really predict how bad I was going to feel. Anyways, this is way too long a post over a sick call, but I'd appreciate some feedback. Thanks guys.

I was the same way - I felt like I knew absolutely nothing. I couldn't remember anything from clinicals, even something as simple as how to hang a piggyback. I'm now on my 6th month of working, 2nd month on my own. I can't even explain to you how fast you learn the simple stuff you're worried about - common meds, IV fluids. Within a couple weeks you've done it so many times it's coming to be second nature. You look up the same meds a few times here and there, soon you know without having to look them up. I wouldn't worry about skills. Those will come to you, and there are always people willing to show you how to do something. Labs and such will also come slowly but surely - you'll get to know normal ranges and what anything out of whack can mean for the patient. Focus more on your assessment skills; it's so very very important! Practice head-to-toes on family and friends. (I still do!) And keep a sharp eye. I had a patient once (on my last day of orientation) that was breathing funny after walking to the bathroom. Didn't have too much urine output. Thank goodness, the patient wasn't fluid overloaded, but I was so caught up in charting it didn't even register! My preceptor was the one to mention it. I was so angry at myself for not noticing it on my own. I asked my preceptor how long will it take until I notice things like that, he said, "A few deaths." (Most of the time he jokes, however I couldn't tell this time.) From then on, I made sure to just look at my patient - what can I tell without using my stethoscope or asking any questions? I've been doing a lot better now and feel more confident. Anyway, sorry for such a long answer. But my point is: don't sweat the small stuff. You will do fabulous!! I wish you the best of luck, keep us updated!

When you drive to work and see a full moon. Uggghhh...

The ones at my facility are black and plastic. Something about black is even worse though... white would be nicer. I know what you mean, about it being impersonal, but I have no idea what could make that better.

Laughed out loud at this!

I remember when I got that email! I was soooo excited! :) Graduated in May, and I'm now on my 4th week working as an RN. You guys will get there!