tralalaRN

The "miracle baby stories" was a reference to how micro preemies are portrayed in the media, by hospital PR departments, Children's Miracle Network Telethon, etc. It is not MY reference, and never would be. Also, there was a fabulous article that was...

First of all they AREN'T miracles, and should never be referred to as such. This implies that the people working in the NICU are God-like, and of course no one can make that claim to fame. . . secondly, it's very VERY telling that you mention all of ...

It's universally accepted that the lower the gestational age, the worse the outcome. Are there exceptions? Certainly. We ALWAYS hear about the exceptions. . those are the miracle baby stories that come into play showing the general public stories of ...

Of course. I do get that. Hence the topic of this thread. . . the saving of 22 weekers. . Peace.

There was an article a long while ago, that said the turnover of nurses in the NICU is higher than any other nursing profession. It's that crisis of conscience and the justification you mentioned that always prevented me from ever wanting to go into ...

Yes, there are definitely things worse than death. The general public is never faced with the ethical dilemmas in the NICU. And how ironic that it is probably the most ethically fraught area of medicine of all! The Baby Doe Laws should never have com...

All the responsibility for dealing with the messes other people make? I would say that is not true. Your shift ends, your career can change. Parents of former micro preemies who face a life time of severe disability and medical fragileness however, d...

And llg - My point was, it would give one a healthy balance to spend some time in the homes, community, school system, social service system (and the PICU as adventure rn described above) to get an understanding of what reality is like beyond the NIC...

adventure rn Yes, you articulated so well, the point I was trying to make. Thank you.

It was not my intent to "blame the nurses" - it's the NICU system as a whole, plus the hospital PR department that wants to always couch saving one pound fetal/infants as "miracles". .rarely is the really challenging other side shown. There is a whol...

I'm suggesting that the NICU is fairly insulated from the real world. The years and decades of pain and suffering inflicted upon families has been well-hidden from the public. Families go into the NICU with unrealistic expectations. . and yes, if yo...

When I started my most recent nursing career, I was encouraged to go into the NICU. . I told the MD and a NP, that I could not live with myself knowing how severe the micro preemies turn out far too often, and the devastation left in the wake of thei...

Anyone working in the NICU should be required to work for 6 months caring for former micro preemies in the home (first). The 3 year olds, 10 year olds, 30 year olds. The trachs, vents, autism, severe learning disabilities, seizures, severe cerebral p...

Well, interestingly, my daughter had grand mal seizures - uncontrolled no matter the medication or surgical procedure we had tried. I started to notice that her seizures were most often affiliated with the full moon. Day before, day of, or day afte...

In premature infants with post-hemorrhagic hydrocephalus, over draining can cause the skull to collapse and cause more hemorrhaging.

This is an outstanding series of articles. Thank you! Well done.

This was a succinct article, clarifying the two B's. Thank you! Such a difference between a personality conflict and true bullying. Bullying certainly is the nurse who is in a position of authority who has targeted you, and whose main goal is not ...

My first degree was in marketing, and I remember well the personnel management class and the discussion about being impossible to be an effective manager as well as a friend. I have worked in 2 hospital departments where this has shown to be true. ...

Most excellent article. I too, have been in a dept with very low morale, short-staffing (I know, big yawn, heard it all before). .but the hospital I worked at was also a "magnet hospital". .and I really came to believe that it meant nothing. Nurses...

this is so dis-heartening, no - disgusting! poor fetal baby.

Sooooo many times, over the years, people (many of them health care professionals who should know better),have said that because of the girls being born at 24-25 weeks 25 years ago, that is the reason for the severity of the disabilities. Neonatal ha...

Actually, the grieving is for the many many times I sat by her bedside in the NICU, in the PICU's, peds, ERs, at home watching her suffer and being powerless to stop it. Well, I was finally able to stop it - with her aspiration pneumonia, I advocate...

An update. Mercifully, my daughter passed away on July 8th after being hospitalized for aspiration pneumonia following status epilepticus. She was loved, she will be missed, but she is so at peace. When I heard she had passed (her grandma was with...

Very cool. Thanks for sharing your strange experiences! Whew! Creepy.

So, so selfish. Good to hear the clinic doing this was not in the U.S. Still - disgusting though.