Baby Wrangler

Can't management shell out to get a dishwasher just for pumping equipment and bottles? We just got one last year for the moms to wash their pumping equipment and baby bottles. You can disassemble the Dr. Brown's and stick the little pieces in a mesh ...

There's very few nursing jobs that don't require lots of standing unfortunately. Especially like other posters said, when you have an emergency you're on your feet the whole shift drawing up meds, taking bloodwork, doing procedures, etc. There's also...

I'm not the most outgoing person either but often times it's the caring attitude and attentive listening that is more important to parents than constant babbling and incessant small talk. I mean, their baby is in hospital and they are not there to ma...

We use a zinc barrier cream called Zincofax, but that's just for like mild diaper rashes. We also use Aquaphor, which is glycerin mixed with sterile water, or Critic aid cream for worse rashes. Once I had a primary baby with a really bad bum rash tho...

Hi fellow Canadian! :) Another documentary that I would suggest you watch is called Keeping Canada Alive, and it's free to stream on the CBC website. It was just filmed in May of this year, and it's about the different areas of the Canadian health ca...

Family "centered" not family "controlled" . There are limits.

Wow! 160 beds! That's the largest nicu I've ever heard of. Our nicu which is a level 3 only has 54 beds at max capacity (which it almost always is). We've been pretty short staffed lately, but it's usually two babies to three babies per nurse unless ...

Not so much things to look up beforehand but what I found helpful was to write down the things you learn every day after a shift in a notebook, like procedures, what you need for procedures, tips your preceptor gave you, what are the norms for vital ...

Do you guys notice any difference between them and the other kind? It would be nice if all our babies that needed cpap could be on RAM. No more nasal breakdown.

Tinkerbell, I think you should look for another nicu job. You've stuck out your year at this place and working somewhere where you're short staffed to the point where you can't provide quality patient care is not worth it. Our unit was really bad at ...

We have ram cannulas too but I was told by our RTs that because it's less of a seal around the nose it doesn't actually provide the same amount of pressure as the mask cpap. We generally only put our babes that can tolerate a lower cpap pressure on t...

Do you mean prepacked as in stock meds? That's what we call the medications that are in our med room that are not prepared in a specific dose for a specific baby. We generally only use them on admits on nights. Otherwise, pharmacy prepares all the me...

I think Apple is talking about the T-piece that you would attach to the IV catheter of the PIV. We generally change the T-piece of a PIV (and prime it with saline) after giving a blood transfusion because it's hard to flush all the remaining blood ou...

Agreed! I work NICU and once had a dream that it was shift change and I had apparently forgotten to feed a baby the entire shift. I think it's related to workload and insane assignments.

Like BecomingNursey said, don't be afraid to ask questions. The fact that you doubt yourself to some extent is a good thing. Nothing pisses off more experienced nurses than new grads that think they know everything and nothing is more scary than some...

Just worked a shift yesterday, had a quiet moment near the end of shift change and was just watching my little primary sleeping in her isolette. Little IUGR 500g baby that's more than doubled her weight in a month. She looked so calm and comfy, it ju...

You guys are allowed to insert uvcs and uacs in the states?! That's pretty cool. Only docs and NPs can do it here. And I work in a level 3.

I think dexamethasone is a good pick. We also use budesonide, an inhaled corticosteroid to help with chronic lung disease in our microprems. Here's an article: Postnatal corticosteroids to treat or prevent chronic lung disease in preterm infants | ...

Here in Canada, formula wise we use Similac (Advance for term babes, SSC 24 or 20 for preemies). We fortify our milk with Similar Human Milk Fortifier. Haven't heard of the ones you mentioned.

4 people is nuts lol! I'd be elbowing people out of the way to try to reach the baby. Not to mention how some visitors breathe down your neck when you're doing baby up or wave a giant camera around trying to get a shot of the baby. We only allow thre...

We cut tegaderm patches for og and ng tubes. They do peel off though, especially with high humidity.

First of all, I highly doubt that you did anything that could've contributed to the grade 4 bleed. It's sad that it happened to the baby, but you don't have anything to do with it. That's part and parcel of being a 27 weeker. And if the baby was intu...

I know it may sound clichéd, but as tinkerbell419 said above, the first year really is the hardest. I started out as a new grad too and that first year I won't tell you the number of times I cried after a shift. I seriously thought of quitting too, ...

Waaah I'm going to answer because the heel part scared me. :S It's done in the anterolateral aspect of the thigh, so yes the chunky part of the vastus lateralis muscle. Heels are only reserved for bloodwork please.

That regression algorithm would definitely be very useful to double check ng tubes! Thanks for sharing that! I'm going to memorize that. I don't know if I agree with this one though..."From a pain and discomfort perspective THREE venous sticks are st...