Taking PALS soon...help!

That's exactly how long it takes to do a PALS course. NRP isn't as long because resuscitation of neos is much simpler and more straightforward. There are only a handful of conditions that will be at issue with them where with kids it can be any of about a hundred! (Not trying to scare you, hon!) You can find an overview of the content at http://www.aafp.org/afp/991015ap/1743.html. It's a little dated, since new guidelines came out in 2005, which you can find at http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/112/24_suppl/IV-167. The first site is a little less intimidating so you could read through it without trying to remember specifics, then when you get your training manual you could start memorizing the doses and the algorithms. (Or you could just use the second site...) To help learn the doses, you could make yourself a "code sheet" with the drugs and dose ranges on it, then do the calculations for a variety of different weights. (Write them down!!) I found that enormously helpful. It also helps if you know what the drugs do because that will give you clues as to why they're used when they're used. Another thing that just occurred to me is that you could offer to check the crash cart whenever you work so that you know what's on it, where it is and how it's organized. Then you can start thinking about why each item is on the cart, why and how it would be used and what the expected outcomes will be. There is an expectation that you'll know the stuff before the course, and that the course time will be for practicing/demonstrating resuscitation techniques. How nice that your employer is paying you to take the course, and paying the costs of the course too. Mine won't even ensure that one has time off to attend, never mind pay for any of it. For those same reasons they haven't made it compulsory. That would be why I haven't recertified recently.

Good for you!! Each time you do it it will get easier. Some of my friends actually work in a float arrangement between NI and PI, going to whichever unit has the greater need at the time. The paperwork is different, the way we mix our drips is different, the mindset is different, and the autonomy is different, but they don't seem to have a lot of difficulty making the shift. Wendy, who started here the same day as me, came from purely neo and she had some growing pains, but now she's perfectly fine with whatever comes her way. You will be too.

I am sure that you will do just fine. It is usually scarier for the PICU nurses to be floated initially to the NICU, not the other way around.

Just when you get patients that are actually larger than you.

:balloons::yelclap: I knew you would!! Way to go... what will you do for an encore?

Congratulations on passing your PALS course!!! :balloons::balloons::balloons:

Also, one nurse was saying she needed a stiff drink after the class...well, we had a power point that had the word "brandycardia" on it!! I laughed a lot about that typo! Brandycardia must happen when you've had one too many!

Anyway, it was actually a little fun.

That's too funny!! I'm going to have to use that one. I frequently find myself caffeinopenic, but I've never had brandycardia...