Dina_RN

Interesting, I think there should be a happy medium at work. Most of my time at work is taken by pt care and paperwork. If I take a break I am doing paperwork at that time too. I am more friendly with some colleagues then with others, but I do like to keep a boundry between staying professional. As long as you can achieve a happy medium between everything I say, do what makes the shift easier for you. The 13 hours can be rough, so if joking around sometimes keeps it lighter, then why not? - my 2 cents

Hi Sammi15, I was just hired to one of those 3 units that you mentioned not to go to. Can you tell me about your experience there? I am a fairly new graduate nurse (other than the 5 months of NICU experience I have) and seeing your comment makes me think that I may get eaten alive on the unit. This would be so helpful to me, Thanks Sammi!

Hi LaminyRN, I was browsing AllNurses for a Winthrop thread and yours is the first I saw. In your response to a user you mentioned that you have been working at Winthrop since April 2007 (ish). Are you still at Winthrop? If so then that is a great sign for me. I was just offered a position. On the interview they had mentioned that they had just let go of one of their new hires though. They also mentioned that they had a hard time finding preceptors to precept the new RN hires. This made me feel a little uneasy. I have 5 months of ICU experience, but I will be switching to Winthrop because I was offered a position in the area which I have always wanted to pursue. I am very hardworking and easy to get along with, but the two little details that I've just mentioned about my Unit are making me uncertain. How was your experience during orientation and during the weekly meetings? I got an ICU job fresh out of Nursing School so I feel like those 5 months helped me tremendously. But I'm not sure any new hire will be happy on a unit where the preceptors don't really want to precept. Yikes. Any feedback about this would be great. Thank you Laminy!

Hi all, I work in a Level IV NICU in the NorthEast. I would say that I agree with all the above posts. In the Level IV where I work what distinguishes us most as a level IV is the cool-cap system, ECMO, the acuity level of the neonates we receive, the manner in which we receive them, and the ability to receive any procedure or surgery necessary to maintain life within our facility itself. The facility where I work receives neonates via helicopter and STAT team as transfers from NICUs around the region. Hope that helped a little bit. Cheers Dina, BSN, RN, EMT-B