hayleyh31

My hospital has a ton of really strict policies but hair color is unit discretion. Our manager has allowed visible wrist/arm tattoos and wild hair. There's a nurse with a blue streak on the underside of her hair, one with ice blue, dark purple, and ...

We are on a points system. We get 14 points in a rolling 2 year span with no excuses or exceptions made. This is what it looks like: Weekdays: 1 point for each call-in unless you are calling in for the same thing multiple times. (Ex:stomach virus ma...

Preach. I get so aggravated by this in the NICU. Your baby hasn't been able to be held in weeks- hold that baby as long as possible and soak up the sweetness because no one will ever need you that much again. You will never regret snuggling your baby...

On my unit, we have mandatory OT. It sucks but we are very well-compensated. We have 6 week schedules and generally have to work 24 extra hours over the 6 week time period. We are "staffed" to 13 nurses/shift but our census is out of control so reali...

It sucks getting used to it, but now I can't imagine working days. I usually try to work 3 or 4 in a row in order to let myself get back to a normal schedule. This summer is kind of messy with my kids home on break all summer, so I'm working a lot of...

Midline for 72 hours at least for our 23-27 weekers. We don't practice S2S with babies on vents or with umbilical lines.

TiffyRN, can you send me the research? Our unit does primary nursing occasionally. I've actually got my first primary right now :) The choice to primary is a choice by both the nurse and the patient, and our unit has specific guidelines including th...

When you are accepted to nursing school.

We don't routinely give sedation to our babies who are intubated. When babies are obviously fighting, we usually give PRN morphine. These are usually chronics who have failed SiPAP multiple times. I've seen Vecuronium used twice post-op for 2-3 days,...

There's two things and they're what you would expect: Hearing a mama sob as she holds her baby for the first and last time. Watching parents who are unable to let their baby go and die a peaceful death, so we essentially torture the baby by trying t...

I have ACLS but that was from previously working with adults. I won't renew it in December when it is due. We are all going to get PALS certified in order to possibly be floated to our new PICU, since we are the only population they could pull from.

I'm a NICU nurse too and I had a very similar experience when I came out of orientation. I think it is a heightened environment for bullying because of the seriousness of caring for someone's baby and the strong personalities. I remember going to the...

Our babies are position head at the wall, feet in the unit, except on HFOV when it's opposite.

My first check is usually the longest with changing linens, weighing and all the other cares. That usually takes me about 30-35 with feeds. Other checks are between 15-20 minutes plus PO feeds. If I know the baby from the night before, the first chec...

West TN 25.51/hr with $4.50 evening /$4.25 night/$4 weekend differentials. I have just under 2 years of experience. I work in a large hospital system in a Metro area

I worked at a home warranty company in customer service. People get so pissed when you can't get an a/c company to come to their house on the same day they called. Someone once told me that they hoped I died in a fiery car accident on my way home tha...

Honestly, I'm not really sure except that we always wear gloves when we touch our babies. The symptoms also came on really fast- I went from being totally fine Thursday and Friday nights, to a slight headache when I went to work at 7p to full blown U...

We just had a flu B outbreak due to people coming in with a "cold" with low grade fevers and bad URI symptoms. I actually went and got swabbed after work, even though my temp was only 99.9 and it was an immediate positive. Everyone who caught it had ...

I had to write down the medications I was on when I was being drug tested but the school never knew what I was on. I also take Xanax PRN, though I never took it before clinical or before work now since it does make me a little foggy. I wouldn't stres...

This is such an old post but now that I've been in the NICU a year now, I feel like I can really tell you why this is my favorite place in the whole world. 1. I love getting to give the first tub bath to a former 27 weeker that I admitted so many we...

Our on-call works like holliewood's policy. And if for some reason I work 40 hours before I'm called in, I get on-call OT pay which is double time. I love those checks.

Another one: 3 year old in peds CVICU- Na 190. Lived.

Blood glucose (serum) on a term IDM- 3. Mom was refusing formula. Baby got a huge d10 bolus. Lived and went home 2 weeks later. Ph 6.73 on a 23 weeker that they could barely intubate bc his airway was so narrow. Died 4 hours later.

I work in the NICU and we were sitting around telling ghost stories around 3 am one night. Nothing was going on and we were directly in the center of the unit. Someone had just finished telling a story about seeing something go into one of our sleep ...

Congratulations!!! :)