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Discussion

Thinking about a change.

I am currently a RN in Med/Surg and have been practicing for 4 1/2 yrs. I am looking for a change. I feel like I would have a unique style of nursing to bring to NICU, because I care. ;) I think it would be exciting to nurse a child from being nearly fatal to well enough to go home with there parents. I am just tired of the stress of MS. I see the NICU and L&D nurses leaving from there shift smiling. Meanwhile, the MS nurses are sore, feet hurting, HA, stressed out:uhoh3: and leaving late more often than not. Please help me.

--What advice can you give me?

--Do you think my Med/Surg experience would be helpful if I transfer to NICU?

--Is there anything I need to know before I decide to make that change?;)

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Thank you all for the kind and encouraging words and information

When I graduated from nursing school 7 years ago, NICUs weren't hiring new grads, so I went to to work in the adult world, always planning to someday work in the NICU. I started in adult med-surg then went to the adult ICU for 4 years. I finally made the leap last summer to a Level III NICU - I love it! It has been a huge learning curve, but it is so worth it.

As far as my feet hurting, headaches, etc. Yes, that is true, but nurses who have only ever worked in a NICU have no idea how absolutely physically exhausting it is to care for sick adults. Assisting a 400 pound unsteady man to the bathroom is much more difficult than changing the diaper on a baby.

There is also the burn-out that begins very quickly when dealing with adults. Doing total care for an alcoholic in the ICU who arrived in the ED too drunk to breathe - bathing him, turning him, changing his diaper, not to mention having him in 4-point restraints through his withdrawals - for weeks - only to have him return to the ED 2 days after being discharged - once again, too drunk to breathe.

The best thing that I can recommend for you is to shadow a nurse first, which is what I did. I'm so glad I made this change!

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