Someone said what does a NICU nurse do?

Specialties NICU

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Specializes in level 3 NICU.

well, being that is it summer & time for new residents & fellows; we try to keep the new docs from killing the babies !:mad: does anyone else have this problem? not only are we caring for critically ill neonates

but we are baby sitting arrogant docs who know nothing yet feel they know everything and write orders that don't make any sense. my solution to this, call the attending @ home in the middle of the night. then somehow, he suddenly remembers it is his job to teach the fellows & residents!

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Specializes in Neonatal ICU.

I work at a teaching hospital, but no residents are allowed in the NICU for precisely this reason.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, educator.

I've never heard of a teaching hospital that didn't allow residents. Interesting.

Yup, my favorite thing in the world is to babysit these new docs. We have electronic charting orders and they are constantly screwing them up. Somedays I get pretty crabby and let the attending know they had better do some teaching!

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Specializes in Peds Urology,primary care, hem/onc.

I remember, waaaay back (12 + years ago) when I worked on a busy pediatric hem/onc/bmt floor, we used to get first year pediatric residents, first assignment out of med school on July 1. We were a huge pediatric hospital.... wouldn't it be better to maybe have them on the general wards for a few weeks before dealing with the sickest kids in the hospital outside of the ICU? I worked nights, and cannot tell you how many times I had to wake the fellow up, at home, in the middle of the night b/c I had an idiot in front of me who would not listen to me! I did not mind the ones who looked at me with a deer in headlights look and said " I have no idea what to do!". It was the dangerous, arrogant ones who thought they knew what they were doing and would not listen. UGGGH. I remember one of our charge nurses, who was known for being quite blunt...had a resident, wide-eyed and freaked out after a crazy, but typical day (couple of codes, lot of sick kids, procedures to do etc) ask her "Is it always like this?", she looked at her and said "welcome to hell!".

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Specializes in MSN, FNP-BC.
well, being that is it summer & time for new residents & fellows; we try to keep the new docs from killing the babies !:mad: does anyone else have this problem? not only are we caring for critically ill neonates

but we are baby sitting arrogant docs who know nothing yet feel they know everything and write orders that don't make any sense. my solution to this, call the attending @ home in the middle of the night. then somehow, he suddenly remembers it is his job to teach the fellows & residents!

wow. i'm sorry it's so bad where you work. we just got a new group of residents july 1 and i have yet to run into any sort of attitude from them. the hospital i work at has a zero tolerance for stuff like that.

i do find it funny that as a brand new nurse, less than a month on the floor at the time, even i was able to look at an order and think that it didn't make any sense at all.

our team is so awesome! for the most part we all work well together with no md (major diety) attitude from anyone toward anyone.

the ones i really have a problem with are the interns aka med students. they know just enough to be dangerous. luckily all of their orders have to be signed off by either a fellow or an attending before they become legit. i've seen some doozies from them! a few of them have had attitudes but they've been quickly healed of that by our whole team.

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Specializes in Neonatal ICU (Cardiothoracic).

Fortunately our residents are pretty well supervised by the fellows and attendings, and they are pretty teachable without a lot of attitude. Granted, here they have anywhere from 8-10 pts on days, and 32 overnight. They can get overwhelmed at times. I actually enjoy making them feel welcome and helping with procedures, ordering things, etc...it makes the transition much easier when they have the tools and the support they need to function for one month at a time in an entirely new and scary environment.

Think about how much training you got in NS regarding sick neonates. Pretty much zilch. They're in the same boat.

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Specializes in ICN.

Our new 'baby' docs are, for the most part, very respectful to the nurses, and quite frequently ask our opinion and then run to the neo for confirmation on an order. Generally, we nurses say tell the resident the same thing that the neo does! lol

I've had the occasional arrogant intern or resident, but not many. They all carry around a binder labled "knowing your ICN"--and on the front page, it says "your nurses are important resources" or something like that, and "listen to the experienced ICN nurses!"

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I work at a teaching hospital too. Sometimes it is annoying having to run after the residents to get them to 'fix' the orders they write, but I have rarely encountered any attitude from them. Most of them are very receptive to suggestions or requests for orders, and they're a lot nicer than the docs when we wake them up at 3 am for something :)

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