Bezoars

LOVE my 12 hour shifts! When I first started doing them I thought I would hate it, but I actually love them. I feel like after making the 40 min commute into work, I want to just stay and work and get my hours in. I love my four days off! Now when I do an 8 hour shift... I feel like I haven't even worked =)

So they just put one of these things on our unit. It's like a stoplight that goes yellow to red when there is too much noise. We are a small NICU unit. Seriously? I'm pretty insulted to be treated like a child. I tend to pick my battles wisely but this is just too much. What do you think about the Yacker Tracker? [video=youtube_share;WyssV2MQsps]

FWIW, I do NICU and love it. It's not always low stress but a lot of the time it is. Also, don't pay attention to the student-haters here. Cue the "NETY" threads.

Just wondering what the significance of the timing of 72hours to one week is?

You save 21 weekers?

Just wondering... how is being on methadone for 9 years being "clean"? Back to magsulfate's question. 9 years????? Really????

I agree that I would definitely give it a year before you jump ship. After that... have at it! OR would be a completely different kind of nursing but you're young and just starting out, so now is the time to explore things. At this point, I have ended up in a place I never thought I would. You never know what you'll like.

2015 ~ State: WV RN: 5+ years experience (Per diem) Specialty: Float Pool Pay: $35/hr no benefits Housing: Decent 4 bdr, 2 bath home for $150k 2016~ Northern VA (moving here early next year) Job in NICU, Per diem no more money then Full or Part time. Based on experience, my base rate $31/hr. Housing: OUTRAGEOUS. Can't get anything better then townhouse for less then $400k

HUGE problem in our area too. We have our own unit for them now with 18 beds that says full ALL THE TIME. It's sad and exasperating. If we have a whole generation of women in this child-bearing age group who think it's nothing to gestate their baby on all this crap... what is coming in the future with all these drug-dependent kiddos? What will the long-term affects be? What a mess. I think they should immediately lose custody of the child and possibly do jail time for child abuse. I'm for bringing back orphanages, because that's what it would take to care for the influx of babies.

We use that purple stuff in the vial too... it's called Marathon. BUT, it has to slough off after several days and tends to look stained and yucky after a few changes. We also do desitin, powder, and the butt-in-the-air-to-light-and-heat method. I like the stoma powder and cream idea!

35 minutes. Always the same.

Loathe: ~ Doing vital signs (tedious) ~ Taking a patient out (hate that time waster) ~ Oral Care ~ Anything that has to do with feet ~ Ostomies LOVE: ~ IV's ~ Wound Care and wound Vacs

Occasionally you can get a recently d/c'd foley pt to pee by cracking an amonia tab into a pilgrims hat and having them sit on the pot over it.

The NICU where I work has become a "guy floor". There are lots of great guys around here and they add so much to the unit. A couple have been here their whole career. I caution you that NICU nursing is it's own specialty, so if you start there as a new RN... you're a lot more likely to get pigieon-holed into that kind of nursing for a long time. I always suggest the "dreaded" med-surg nursing to all new grads. Sure nobody wants to do it.... but it's incomparable experience, it looks good on a resume, and you will always be able to find a job. I'm so thankful for my time in Med/Surg nursing. I can always go back.

So my 17 yo, 185 lb, 5'10 son swallowed a 2" by 1" piece of plastic the other night that he was chewing on. He was just chewing on this hard piece of plastic that had broken off of his cooler or something. He started to choke on it, coughed it up and swallowed it. This happened two nights ago. I'm not an alarmist. I told him it will come through the gut and out in the poop. He has had no adverse symptoms as of yet and is checking his poop. I did talk to a nursy friend today who wanted to know WHY I didn't take him to the ER post-haste and have that thing removed. She was appalled that I didn't bring him in. Thoughts?