Seriously?!

We often use a neobar!

I haven’t forgotten to feed a baby or had that dream but I have had some doozies of work dreams, it usually happens after a really rough night. In one dream, the baby was getting a picc placed and the isolette was open and the sides were down. The nurse placing the picc was charting and I turned around and the baby was no longer on the bed. I looked down and the baby was on the floor in pieces. It’s head was off, it’s arms and legs were off. Then the secretary called and said it’s parents we’re coming back to visit. So I gathered all of the pieces quickly and tried to wrap it into a blanket to hold it together, and it’s foot kept falling out. In another dream, I realized there was a baby off the monitor so I went to check on it. Of course it was not breathing. I began PPV and called for help. Our NRP educators voice came over the intercom “we are all busy, you are on your own.” So I started alternating compressions and ppv by myself. After a minute or 2, a coworker (that no longer works here) notorious for leaving you high and dry stopped by and said, “hey I just wanted you to know I’m going to lunch.” The next thing I remember in that dream is our neonatologist telling me that I let the patient down and I let its parents down and I let our unit down and now I could explain to the parents why their baby is dead. terrible terrible dreams ?

One of the great things about NICU is that you have a variety of acuities and needs. We have some nurses that love NAS infants, some love to do feeder/grower, some love discharge teaching and time spent with parents, some love the critical care. None of those type of nurses are “bad” in any way. And what’s really cool is usually you’re good at what you love. For me, I love my patient to be intubated and on tons of critical drips. I love the details, the titrations, the intricate subtleties of it all. I do not love helping a mom learn to breastfeed, or teaching parents how to give a multivitamin. Of course I still do those things, it’s just not my favorite. I think it’s part of the beauty of nursing, and of NICU, it takes all kinds! Do what you love and love what you do. I think it makes you a great nurse! ❤️

Yes, I love that!! It is so true! ❤️

When you first become a nicu nurse, they don’t tell you your life is forever changed. They don’t tell you that you will literally hold a life in the palm of your hand. They don’t tell you that you should make sure your vision is checked regularly because you will be looking at some of the tiniest numbers ever printed. They don’t tell you that you wear gloves so often, it feels weird changing your own baby with bare hands. They don’t tell you that you will sometimes get to see a persons very first breath and their very last breath in the same day. They don’t tell you that no matter how much you study, you will never know enough. They don’t tell you that you will become a translator from doctor language to parent language. They don’t tell you that you will help someone through drug withdrawal that doesn’t even understand what is happening. They don’t tell you that doing everything you can is sometimes still not enough. They don’t tell you that your dreams will be filled with horror after a rough night. They don’t tell you that everything you learned in nursing school doesn’t apply to this patient population. They don’t tell you that every word you say and every act you do means something. They don’t tell you that the respiratory therapists are the true heroes of the nicu. They don’t tell you that you will look at the clock when you are home and notice that it’s on the hour. They don’t tell you that you will think about your patients all the time. They don’t tell you that there will be things you can’t unsee. They don’t tell you that you will feel a huge sense of accomplishment on discharge day. They don’t tell you that sometimes you still worry about your patients after discharge. They don’t tell you that you will hear so many alarms, and know what each one means just by one tone. You are not allowed to get used to them. Ever. You hear them even when you’re trying to go to sleep. They don’t tell you that you will measure things in grams, Celsius, and centimeters. They don’t tell you that your coworkers will become like family. They don’t tell you that you have the responsibility of someone’s entire world resting on your shoulders. They don’t tell you that there’s a such thing as nanopreemie diapers, 1 inch blood pressure cuffs, isolettes with rainforests inside them, and actual living humans weighing less than a pound. They don’t tell you that you will notice tiny subtle differences that no one else may pick up on. They don’t tell you that you will stand in awe of a patient, so blown away by this miracle that it takes your breath away. They don’t tell you that you will feel so incredibly honored to be able to do this every day. They don’t tell you that sometimes you leave work so drained, you have nothing left for your family waiting at home. They don’t tell you that you will hold yourself to the highest of standards, never accepting anything less than 100%. They don’t tell you that burping a baby makes the monitor alarm that the baby is in v-fib. They don’t tell you that not all babies in nicu are preemies. They don’t tell you that you will sit at a bedside for 12+ hours, praying and willing with everything inside of you that your patient will make it through the night. They don’t tell you that you will be keeping your eyes on SO many numbers. Vitals, labs, medication dosages. Constantly watching. Observing. Making subtle changes. They don’t tell you that sometimes you overthink things. Sometimes it is what it is, not what you want it to be. And you will struggle. They don’t tell you that you get to teach. Gently, carefully guiding parents on how to care for this fragile life. That one day, you will be the more experienced nurse and you get to show the new nicu nurse (who has been told none of these things) that he or she will make it. Inch stones are celebrated. Miracles are happening. They don’t tell you that you really get to be a part of this. And what an awesome life it is, how blessed we are to be nicu nurses. #nicustrong #nicunurse #nicumom

We don't use bean bags underneath but we have "frogs" that we use for boundaries. For probe positioning, we use z-flos and those foam probe positioners that look like a fish. I wish we had a developmental specialist! We only have PT part time!

I've been a NICU nurse for about 18 months now, and I just had my first bad iv infiltrate last week. It was a preemie with iugr, 960g. I felt sooooo awful because she was my only patient- she was counting on me and I let her down. I was checking it every hour, but I made the mistake of only checking the insertion site and the area immediately surrounding it. I should've untaped the arm board and I would've seen it sooner. Now I know to do that and also always think about where the catheter ends, that's where the infiltrate occurs, not the insertion site. I learned a very valuable lesson but I still haven't completely forgiven myself. It was tpn and lipids, I had to administer wydase. í ½í¸­

I'm a new grad and have just started (2 weeks in!) labor and delivery at a rural hospital in Georgia as well. I LOVE it. There's no nicu team to save me, we do all of our own labs, resus, ivs (even neonatals), everything. There isn't a dr/cnm in the facility at all times. There aren't any med students taking over your births. It's the best thing ever, and the best experience, because you will be able to do it all. And you will see all walks of life as well, though not the intensity and frequency of Grady. Stay rural! :)

Try not to worry and stress over it too much. Do the best you can- it's all you can do. I'm graduating in May from GTC. Y'all can do it!

I just today had a lightbulb moment about my stethoscope causing my headaches! So I googled it and found this thread í ½í¸Š I thought I was going crazy lol I couldn't figure out why I got a headache after a few hours every single time!

I was a smoker, quit a week ago today! Now I have a problem with too much dr pepper and not enough exercise.

At midterm of my bridge- middle of 8 week long classes before we transition into the senior year of traditional RN program. Sooo very overwhelmed! They assume we know a lot of things but I am quickly finding out I don't know anything! Just looking for others to commiserate with. 😁

Did you get in? I got accepted and running around like a crazy person trying to get all this stuff together :)

I'm a nurse in a nursing home also with a history of childhood sexual abuse. I'm also in therapy to deal with trauma resolution. I have only had (very) few uncomfortable experiences, and they were dealt with. The worst that's happened to me at work is I was standing at the desk talking to a family member on the phone and a resident came up behind me and pulled me down into his lap. It was triggering for me but I composed myself, told the resident that it was inappropriate, not to do that again, and charted the behavior. There are some things you have to deal with, but its worth it, in my opinion. You are an adult now, you are in control of your body, and you can make choices now. Your body is yours. Don't let what happened to you stop you from being who you want to be. It's your choice now. You can do it. And it may even be healing for you to see that you can handle things. Outside of that one incident, I've only had a couple of butt slaps/grabs. But I handled those the same way. If ya documented that a resident has sexually inappropriate behavior the doctor usually prescribes a medication for that resident to help stop it. Hope this helps!

An update on the situation. I assessed resident, didn't see any physical damage. DON acted on the report, got a written statement from the accuser and mailed to corporate or the state or whoever handles such things. She and managers also spoke with resident and residents roommate and determined what accuser said was true. CNA marked off the schedule. I just feel horrible that the whole situation happened! I hate this.