AmberK1026

I honestly don't know that answer. Most of the people who leave the NICU in my experience are leaving because they got their FNP or PNP. A few have gone to outpatient surgery or something like that. We have had a handful of people transfer FROM adult ICU/med surg to NICU and they say they don't regret it at all.

1.5 - 2 years for a day shift position to open up.

What about mother/baby? I worked on this unit for a year after graduating nursing school and then transferred to NICU. Have been in NICU for nearly 3 months now.

No- you don't have to wear a certain color. If you are buying new scrubs you could just get the teal that ACC wears or even navy blue since you will eventually wear navy when you become an RN.

Im in the process of trying to decide where to get my RN-BSN. A co-worker is going through Chamberlain and she said even though it is more money the program is really easy. No tests, a handful of papers- the main thing is discussion boards and responding to those. Im eligible for a 30% tuition discount through my employer and am planning on doing tuition reimbursement but I'm still having a hard time with the cost of the program. I can theoretically get this degree with minimal out of pocket through tuition reimbursement but I just don't know what kind of reputation this program has.

I graduated nursing school at 42 and the majority of my class were second career students. I didn't have a previous bachelors degree so I went the ADN route and there was so much information thrown at me in 2 years time that my head was spinning. I can't imagine trying to do all of that in 1 year. You might find the traditional route is a slower pace for you and just the right thing. I say go for it if it's what you really want to do. 1 year vs. 2 years is not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things.

Hello! I am not a new grad but I will be starting in the NICU 7/1! I've been working PP for the last year and now am moving into my dream job! I am also the mother of former NICU patients- 26 week twin boys, one passed away at 3 days old due to Grade IV IVH and my survivor spent 109 days in the NICU. My 3nd son also spent 3.5 weeks in the NICU because I had chorio and he got meningitis from it. I've floated to NICU a few times taking care of feeder/growers and every time I'm there it just feels like home to me! I am so excited to start my new job but terrified at the same time! I will have 10 weeks of orientation so that makes me feel slightly better :)

I decided to wear one of my older pairs last shift and my feet were killing me by end of shift. I'm in Texas so when not working I pretty much wear flip flops the rest of the time. I do need to get a new pair of orthotics though. What brand do you use? I'm currently using protalus.

Very true!

In just over a years time, I'm on my 3rd pair of Brooks running shoes and just wondering how long you can wear a pair of shoes before having to replace? I recently wore my Danskos and my Alegrias to work and was miserable so it looks like running shoes are best for me. My husband teases me about how many shoes im going through but he just doesn't understand the need for comfort working 12 hour shifts. Tell me Im not alone????

I am a PP nurse in a very busy hospital with 6000+ births per year. We have L&D, PP, and Newborn Nursery as 3 seperate units. L&D nurses labor with the mom and at the time of delivery I believe the charge nurse or some other "head/lead" nurse catches the baby and then newborn nursery will come in to transition the baby (give baths, meds, etc). NICU is always on stand-by in case additional help is needed. For c-sections the newborn nursery nurse catches the baby, stimulates baby, assigns apgars then will take baby to newborn nursery to transition while mom is still in the OR. Once mom is in recovery and if baby is doing well then baby goes to be with mom in recovery. PP nurses take care of mom and baby once baby has been transitioned and is stable. We are cross trained to go to L&D to help recover moms after a normal lady partsl birth- recovery time is 2 hours.

We always encourage mom to attempt to get baby to latch at every feeding. If after 5 - 10 mins and baby is just not latching/too sleepy then we encourage hand expression and finger feeding any colostrum to the baby. Skin to skin prior to feeding is strongly encouraged too.

I learned to do dosage calculations with dimensional analysis but the way they taught me was so confusing. It wasnt until a friend helped me out. I set up the problem with what I was looking for first (mls/hr, etc). Then I put the info from the problem with mls on top and worked the problem from there. It was like a light bulb moment went off for me and my last semester I aced the dosage calc test with 100 on the first try! You just have to find a way that makes sense to you and then practice, practice, practice.

Bump! Any ideas would be helpful!

Hello all- I am nearing the end of my 1 year new grad residency with my hospital and we have to present a project regarding something to help our unit and present evidence based practice articles. My partner and I are working on transitioning new grads to the bedside and ways to make the transition smooth. Our main area of concentration is a "cheat sheet" of sort that has ideas to organize your day, documentation requirements, protocols, etc. We also want to include some other ways in which a unit could help out a new grad acclimate to the floor. When you were a new nurse, what did your unit , your preceptor, your educator, or who ever else was in charge of your training do to help you acclimate and make an easy transition to the bedside? Or what ideas would you have liked to see? They dont necessarily have to be implementable, we just need some more ideas Some other ideas we have are: Having a sheet with doctors names and picture on it so we can recognize them since our unit is huge (Post partum) Monthly meeting with educator to discuss issues we have had on the floor Mentor program (we have one but it is pretty lame and not fully developed. would like some more ideas on this) Meeting our preceptors PRIOR to our first shift with them New grad/employee social so we can get to meet our co-workers Thanks for any input you might have! Amber