Support staff

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Hi,

I was wondering what support staff you have in NICU. Do you use techs or is it just the nurses? The special care nursery where I did my clinical rotation didn't use support staff and I'm hoping to get my foot in the door while I'm still an LPN. Thank you for any insight you may be able to offer. Jules

Specializes in NICU- now learning OR!.

We have RNs and Nurse Techs on our unit. No LPNs to my knowledge. The Techs are in charge of stocking the unit basically and keeping track of breastmilk (along with the RN) I don't know if they have any special training because all of our Techs have been with us forever...no chance of anyone new being hired..

Jenny

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Specializes in PICU, ICU, Transplant, Trauma, Surgical.

Our NICU does not have CNAs, techs or LPNs. I am a unit secretary in a leve 3 NICU but IMO it's more of a tech role because I do not just file, greet and answer phones. I do all that stuff, put orders in, get blood products, transport equipment, get meds from pharm, hold babies if nurses do not have time to, stock everything that CS/pharm do not etc. etc. etc. We pretty much pick up the slack where needed. I am currently in nursing school and will grad w/my associates in nursing (to be an RN) in spring '08 and plan on working NICU when I'm done, so the nurses trust me to do some more stuff that is within my scope of practice and that they are able to delegate to me.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

Thank you all so much for your replies. I'm going to check out the local NICUs and special care nurseries and hopefully I'll be back as a member of your group soon. Take care and thanks again for being so generous with your experiences! Jules

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