bubbly

There are a lot of babies on my unit who I would like to adopt and bring home. Too bad the parents won't let me because they would rather take them home instead. :chuckle I just wish all the babies go to good homes with lots of love. I know of 2 people I work with who have adopted within the nicu and only 1 baby (lots of special needs) who was up for adoption (but not adopted from anyone in my nicu).

If the baby is your primary, then I am sure you know the baby and perhaps family very well that you can use your own discretion in deciding if its appropriate to give a gift and what that gift is. If it was me and my mangers/board of nursing complained, theres worse things to worry about then a nurse showing their appreciation for a baby they bonded with and cared for. I personally think the best gifts are ones I take time to make, like maybe a little scrap book page to frame of the baby's time in the nicu. But then again, I like the artsy crafty stuff. :) Good luck and congrats that your primary is on their way home!

Age is not a factor to pursue nursing. In fact, the oldest graduate in my nursing class was in her late 50s. I would also recommend applying to multiple nursing schools in your area just to increase your chances for acceptance. I think you have a very good background for a future in nursing. As for affording school, you may want to look in being a nurse assistant as a side job because sometimes the place will pay for tuition and you can gain a lot of good learning experience that way. Most important is that you said you regretted not pursuing nursing earlier. If you don't take this opportunity now, you will always regret it! Good luck!!!!

Thank you for your post. I too chose to work at a large teaching metropolitan hospital because they have experience in teaching new grads and I knew the orientation was going to be nice and long (6 months)! I got a tour of the unit from the manager and got to meet other nurses in that department. I had a great intuition about the place and have had no regrets since. My job has still had its ups and downs, but there are so many supportive co-workers in my unit and new grads just like me who have shared the same fears that I don't feel alone. We get new residents rotating in all the time so I also get to hear the attendings teaching them about diagnoses and procedures and learn something new as well. My only advice to new nurses is be very careful in choosing the first place you want to work at since that will be your first impression of really being a working nurse. Trust your intuition, learn about the place as much as you can, try to get into an area you really have a passion about so it will carry you through the new grad blues, and don't be swayed by other motives like salary or driving distance that is unrelated to your actual nursing experience. :)

Everyone makes mistakes. I just have to put the mistake in perspective and tell myself that as long as the patient is ok and there is no long term damage, it will be just fine. The worst you can do is not learn from your mistakes. If you missed a med, ask yourself why and try to fix that problem the next time you give meds. It will just take practice and a lot of the little things in nursing like labeling and charting stuff will just come naturally to you. Good luck and focus on the things that you are doing right and learning quickly to drown out the mistakes you keep dwelling on. :)

Hello :) I graduated in May 2007, passed my boards in June, and started my internship for a neonatal icu in July. Its been a long journey and lots of consideration if this was what I wanted to do or if I could handle the stress and workload of my chosen career. I now have 18 months experience and glad i stuck through it because I am really starting to enjoy my job, feel more comfortable and knowledgeable doing it, and feeling like I am making a difference for my patients and their families. :) I do not feel regret because I truly love my nursing specialization and patients. :heartbeat

maybe being a school nurse? I know people who have started as a new grad, just have to have a bachelors degree in my state. Hours seem comparable to that of a teacher.

It doesn't really matter which nursing is the hardest and easiest bc it will vary on who you talk to. What matters most is starting your nursing career in something you really want to do and you have passion for. That will make the challenging part more worth it. As far as getting help, try to get a good feeling of the unit during your orientation and how many new grads they hire. Nobody expects a new grad to know everything. You will get the most help if you are eager to learn, optimistic, and even helping others in return. :)

My hospital's incubators have built in scales, like sweeper said. Many of our warmers even have bed scales. We weigh our babies once a shift at night. We are allowed to defer weights if they are critically ill, just had surgery, etc. We use humidity when pts are 26 weeks or less. We start out on 75% humidity and start weaning on the 7th day by 5% each shift until it is 40% (I live in south tx where it is very humid and thats about what our room humidity is at :) ). We only take our premies out of the incubator if they are getting kangaroo care.

Ooooh I had an awful time on my first and only float so far. It was only 8 weeks after I finished my NICU orientation and I was floated to the never seen before PICU unit. Everything was completely different over there and I had no idea what I was doing or where I was supposed to go. It would be a very very long story if I told you everything I had to do that I never even encountered before. I can just say it was a much more difficult assignment than I had done in the NICU esp on my own! It was only 2 patients, but 1 was on isolation for c-diff, which just made everything that more difficult. I ended up using the PICU charge nurse CONSTANTLY in the beginning, my NICU charge nurse to come help me chart all the meds with me over her lunch break, and a NICU transport nurse to take over completely my c-diff pt- which by the way kept her completely busy until shift ended as we were still trying to figure things out in the PICU and the charts. I cried for most of the shift as I was completely in over my head and felt so unsafe and incompetent and embarrased that I was crying. The rest of the PICU nurses were soooo inconsiderate as they just gossiped at the nursing station as they saw me frazzled and in tears without any offer to help. All I cared about was that none of my patients died or turned seriously worse during my care. I do not look forward to any future floats. I would be to the point of quitting than to float again. The day I floated was seriously the worst day in nursing I ever had so far.

I was curious to know what NICU nurses think about visiting and even babysitting your NICU graduates. I have heard of some nurses who will continue their relationships with babies and parents outside of the hospital even though it not encouraged by NICU management. I thought it kind of blurs the line of professionalism, even though I think its great that parents really like and trust their nurses to do that. I don't see any problem with knowing how the babies are doing at home through pictures and mail, or when the parents bring their nicu graduates back for a nicu visit. I'm just not sure about actually visiting them elsewhere and even babysitting. So what do you all think and does your hospitals have policies on the matter? :)

I was curious how long different NICUs kept chronic babies who did not meet requirements for lower level care facilities. Do you transfer these babies to a special pediatric floor in your hospital or do they continue to stay in the NICU until they meet lower level care discharge requirements. I am asking this because our NICU unit has and has had babies in our care for over 12 months, the oldest I think was almost 2 years before discharge. Just wanted to ask your thoughts, esp since by that age they should be treated like pedi and not neonatal.

wee one that is exactly what i do too. We have these bean bags in the shape of an arm for our babies and when I turn a baby prone, i will put the tubing on the face in between the fingers of the beanbag. They look so much more comfortable that way. I am also waiting for your idea of a canula thing that works with CPAP!

I'm from Houston. Having lived in both Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth, I am familiar with both areas. As another post mentioned, good hospitals in Dallas are Baylor, Parkland, and Children's Medical center right next to Parkland which would be the best for pediatric er in my opinion. Houston pays a little more only because many hospitals give an extra 5% plus differential for working in the Texas Medical Center. The Texas Medical Center has excellent hospitals like Hermann Memorial, Methodist, St. Luke for icu and Texas Children's for pediatric er. Good luck in your decision! I think both places are great! :)

we recently changed to 2% chlorahexadine. i don't think that is good for the skin either!