You Know You're a NICU Nurse When...

[babynurselsa, RN]

Hmm, our 8th floor windows don't open either. But there is always the pneumatic tube system with it's 1 kilo weight limit!

I have on more than oe occasion threatened to tube patients to the lab.

Especially when the new lab tech who will only accept the "perfect specimen" call for the 3rd redraw from my 500gm baby, or that cranky gut kiddo....

You actually groan inwardly at the thought of higher order multiples. (goodness...triplets AGAIN?!) Whereas the rest of the population seems to think it is sooo neat and cute...the more the better.

[preemieRNkate, RN]

You actually groan inwardly at the thought of higher order multiples. (goodness...triplets AGAIN?!) Whereas the rest of the population seems to think it is sooo neat and cute...the more the better.

I have a friend who is always saying that she would love to have twins or triplets. I think she's nuts.

#19 sucks.................a lot.

[NicuGal, MSN, RN]

Oh, those are all good LOL

You threaten to take the security band off that screaming chronic and put him in the hall with a sign that says TAKE ME....and you know darn well they'd get to the elevator and bring him back! LOL

Or you loving look at those wonderful forehead veins on your baby or a friends and think, Oh if only they all had such beauties :)

And then you thread a #26 angio into something that closely resembles that spider vein growing down your leg, only that may be bigger!

got a urine shower the other day, myself, from a bitty girl, no less. how she managed that, i don't know. fortunately it was near the end of the shift and i went home and took a looong shower, but i couldn't help thinking that if the same thing had happened with a grown-up patient, i'd have stripped right down and had the hazmat team set up a shower right there on the spot :chuckle.

i had one pee on me at 8 in the morning! thats always a great way to start the day.

[prmenrs, RN]

When I first met my son in the NICU, one of the things that impressed me was that this

[wensday, MSN, RN, APN, NP]

...you've ever been freaked out seeing an adult (or even small child!) sized ETT.

...your bladder is bigger than your patient.

...you've had daydreams of smacking parents on the head with a bendybar.

...at least one of your patients has been on tv/in the paper as a miracle baby.

...you've ever got a medic opinion on a baby that's 'just not quite right' and find it hard to explain how you know the baby is obviously septic/had a bleed/got NEC with the most vague symptoms.

Argh, first night tiredness is not helping my brain

[elizabells, BSN, RN]

Or you ever get breastmilk in your eye. Been in the NICU over 2 years now and that happened to me last night for the first (and hopefully the last) time :barf01:

I just have to resurrect this old thread to tell this story:

The other day I was standing across an open crib from a colleague chatting. She aspirated her kid's NGT prior to a feed. She was expelling the air from the syringe prior to refeeding the aspirate. And a drop just... flew out of the syringe and landed in my OPEN MOUTH.

Partially. Digested. Breast milk. In my mouth. First time I've actually vomited at work 2/2 something gross.

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

Partially. Digested. Breast milk. In my mouth. First time I've actually vomited at work 2/2 something gross.

Just think of all those antibodies you missed out on in that drop...

Just think of all those antibodies you missed out on in that drop...

Thanks Elvish, I almost choked on my tea after reading this comment!!!

[preemieRNkate, RN]

I just have to resurrect this old thread to tell this story:

The other day I was standing across an open crib from a colleague chatting. She aspirated her kid's NGT prior to a feed. She was expelling the air from the syringe prior to refeeding the aspirate. And a drop just... flew out of the syringe and landed in my OPEN MOUTH.

Partially. Digested. Breast milk. In my mouth. First time I've actually vomited at work 2/2 something gross.

Ew. I once had a booger land on my lip. I was using a bulb syringe and squirting the boogies out onto a piece of gauze, and one ricocheted off the gauze and right onto my lip. That was gross. You all know what kind of stuff you can get out of a kid's nose. It's amazing sometimes how they can even breathe!