ksclax

If you are interested I think that it is a great opportunity to cross train to the PICU. I love the NICU but there are a limited number/amount of etiologies that can occur with a baby. The PICU will offer the opportunity to still work with babies (though not micro premies) but incorporates a wider variety of etiologies and different challanges. The problem that I faced in working in both areas, as someone else stated before, is the PICU does things differently than the NICU. At our hospital the vents, vent settings, monitors, lines, drip concentrations and medication concentrations, Doctor rounds, documentation and even report were different. This often leads to the all famous arguement that the PICU is better/smarter than the NICU (don't want to get into that- hopefully your hospital doesn't have this feeling between the two units). If your hospital does feel this way about the NICU you may not initially not feel very welcomed or like you fit in. But don't worry as soon as you prove yourself knowledgeable to the staff and doctors you will love the experience the PICU offers. Good luck.

There are already audible pressure alarms for the ECMO circuit pre and post lung (the head exchanger in the pedi circuit is incorperated internally to the lung and for neonatal circuit the heat exchanger is sepperate post lung but an alarm here would not be needed because blood clots that cause circuit problems are typically formed in the lung or are trapped in the arterial fliter- only small clots occur here and usually do not cause a problem to the circuit) and post bladder (venous pressure) alarm. The new monitors are digital and you can set the upper and lower limits depending on the patient and type/size circuit. Good luck on your project and let me know if you have any other questions.