SURFnNURSE

Thanks guys for all your help. I am definately going to do more research with it, but just wanted to see what others experiences were before doing so.

We culture all of our babies for MRSA on the 15th of each month and also on admission with a transport. We find more cases of VRE from transports than MRSA. Once positive, they get put on isolation until they have 3 neg cultures.

I have been a RN for 4 years and am extremely interested in travel nursing. I was wondering how easy it was to get a 2br apartment/condo with no extra cost. I have a friend that is thinking about traveling with me that is not a nurse. What are your experiences with 2br housing? If you have gotten a 2br for a little bit extra, how much more did you have to spend out of pocket? I know that it is different per city/company/circumstance...Just trying to weigh out my options before traveling!! Thanks!! :) :)

calm, cool, carribean blue.........my favorite

I have heard that on some units the charge nurse doesnt have their own assignment. in our unit we do, and i remember the many of times that i have been charge and thought that it would be nice not to have my own patient load also.

All our fluids get changed every 24 hrs, except for art lines, mso4 gtt's, dopa gtts etc which get changed every 72 hrs

Congrats on graduation and for all that hard work... good luck with boards. Believe me, it will take a while to get used to not doing care plans or reading 200 pages a night! But doesn't it feel good to be done?

summer teeth... some are teeth and some are not

NASSATALL (no *** at all) DISEASE

thanks for your great explanation. I understood alot about bilirubin and just got back from a conference in which this was one of the topics, and you did a much better job explaining it than they did!!

I believe that it takes a certain kind of nurse to work in the NICU. If you believe its for you, then go for it. I knew in high school that i wanted to work in the NICU, thanks to my mom. I followed her footsteps

Welcome and nice to meet you. Good luck on fulfilling your dream!

We have a baby in the unit right now that had a cyst. The surgeon actually ruptured it during PDA surgery! This did not help for long. After multiple pneumo's and chest tubes (1-2 every 4 hrs), they decided to remove part of the lung including the cyst. After 3 days we were able to wean from the vent to cpap. she is still on cpap, but she is now only 900gms.

Just keep on practicing and dont get discouaged. Even the best at iv sticks have to start somewhere. It took me a long time to feel comfortable with starting IV's. Just keep trying and hang in there.

I have been working nights for 2 years now and i love it. it gets some getting used to but once you are, its amazing how you can keep going strong with not much sleep. good luck working night shift

It takes a certain kind of person to work night shift. Personally, i love it! It takes some getting used to, but after a few weeks, your body gets used to it. the extra patient load would make it harder though. on my floor we get the same amt of patients, but there is less going on (not as many visitors, docs, xr techs, etc) and you get paid $4 more. Its a no brainer here

I would think twice before signing something like that. Does the hospital have problems retaining newgrads. Here, they asked us verbally to stay 2 years since they were taking the time to train me to intensive care. I planned on staying for at least 2 years, but since nothing was on paper or signed, i can really leave before 2 years is up.

I went straight into a level III NICU after graduation and had no problems with the transition. I have been working in the NICU for nearly 2 years. We had a 3mo orientation. starting off, i didn't know if i could possibly be compitant enough to be an effective NICU nurse. There is alot of information to learn, but luckily at my hospital we have a good orientation program. the first thing we did was get NRP certified, then there were several new grad courses including STABLE. After those 3 months, not only did I feel compitant, but the other nurses felt comfortable also. We have hired several new grads here since, and i have noticed that they know more than some of the nurses that have been around for years.

We also have the RTS program. Ours keeps in contact with the families that have lost an infant up to the 2 year anniversary. Of the parents that i have talked to, They like the opportunity to get together with others that are going through what they have.

We computer chart, and sometimes it is a royal pain. Its nice when you are caught up, but if you have a sick baby thats crashing, you cant just pull up a computer and chart. you find yourself writing everything down on small pieces of paper to keep track of whats going on, and before you know it you have 6 hrs of charting to catch up on. kind of defeats the purpose of computer charting. If i have a hard night with a baby, i sometimes have to stay an extra 1-2 hrs to catch up on charting. And by that point, all i want to do is go home.

Congrats on the new job. our unit welcomes new grads with open arms. Im sure they are glad to have you. Good luck, im sure you will have lots of fun!!