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

Specialties NICU

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Saw this on a Facebook group.... funny, but SO true...

You know you are a NICU nurse when...

1. You've eaten hamburger patties bigger than most of your patients

2. You define colors by the color of stool you've seen- i.e. baby poop green/yellow

3. You don't understand why talking about sticking a needle in a baby's head is making other people at the dinner table ill

4. At one time or another have had breast milk, poop or urine on your work clothes

5. You have affectionately called a patient cletus the fetus, wimpy white boy, troll or FLK (funny lookin' kid) in report

6. You can change your patient's bed linens with one hand while holding your patient in the other

7. You can make an IV arm board out of some 4x4 gauze and tape

8. You've almost caught your hair on fire while in your patient's bed...a.k.a. radiant warmer

9. You've used a sock or a piece of tape for a restraint

10. You check out the scalp veins, cap refill and fontanels on a friend's new baby

11. You use a cotton ball to obtain urine samples

12. You use saran wrap to keep your food fresh and your patient's warm

13. You think all crying babies need benadryl, versed or intubation

14. You think the pulse oximeter, CPAP and those crappy no sticking leads were created by the devil

15. You have ever shown a doctor a green residual while they were eating

16. You have obtained a 10cc residual when the patient only gets 1cc

17. You have put an intensive care patient in a swing

18. You don't get excited if your patient has a heart rate of 180

19. You do chest compressions with two fingers

20. Most of your meds come in TB/1cc syringes

21. You prepare your patient's bath water in a Dixie cup

22. You draw blood from your patient's heel

23. You use a rubber band for a tourniquet

24. You've seen two complexes on EKG screen and not been excited-you merely pat your patient on the butt and it's all good

25. Newborn babies look like preschoolers to you

26. You tell people what you do and they think you sit around and rock babies all day

27. When you tell people what you really do they start to cry and/or vomit

28. You have assisted with surgery on your patient in their bed and on the unit

29. You have at one time or another in the heat of frustration threatened to throw your patient in the trash can

30. You have considered using duct tape to hold a pacifier in a screaming baby's mouth

31. You have met your patient's father, mother's boyfriend, and husband all in one day

32. You have made a mental note that no matter how stupid people are they still know how to get their groove on

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=11097554174

YKYANNW:

You can't help but (inwardly) roll your eyes when someone gets all exercised about a friend of theirs who went into labor TWO WEEKS EARLY!!! ZOMG! 38 weeks!!!

:chuckle :yeah:

What is funnier is when they bring in preemie diapers and preemie clothes for their preemie 38 weeker....all 7 or 8 pounds of him/her!!

Makes me smile.:D

Specializes in Neonatal ICU (Cardiothoracic).

I had a little one the other day, on the vent, who I had covered with a blanket with the RW off.... whenever he needed to be suctioned, I'd see his little hand up in the air, waving back and forth, as if to say: "Excuse me, nurse, I need to be suctioned!!"

Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

How to ring your call bell in the NICU: set off your alarm!

I had a little one the other day, on the vent, who I had covered with a blanket with the RW off.... whenever he needed to be suctioned, I'd see his little hand up in the air, waving back and forth, as if to say: "Excuse me, nurse, I need to be suctioned!!"

Awws! I love it. Also when you have them plastic wrapped under humidity and they poke a teeny foot or hand through to check the "outside world" or when you nest them and cover with a blanket and come back 15 minutes later to see little feet hanging outside the bottom of the blanket and that they have completely undone your nesting (all might 800grams of them!)

Or when you give them a scalp massage when they are cranky and they suddenly melt into your arms.

:loveya::heartbeat

Specializes in NICU.
I had a little one the other day, on the vent, who I had covered with a blanket with the RW off.... whenever he needed to be suctioned, I'd see his little hand up in the air, waving back and forth, as if to say: "Excuse me, nurse, I need to be suctioned!!"

Cute :). It's kind of like knowing which baby is crying by looking down the room and seeing which little legs are pumping up and down underneath their blanket bundles. Heh, they can't keep any secrets from us ;).

Specializes in pediatric critical care.

you know you you're a nicu nurse when you find it hilarious to watch the picu nurse who floated down to you (a.k.a. myself) freak out when her pt occasionally has a brief a/b episode and she's grabbing the ambubag, ready to call a code.

i love how you guys tolerate me down there!:):heartbeat

Specializes in NICU.
you know you you're a nicu nurse when you find it hilarious to watch the picu nurse who floated down to you (a.k.a. myself) freak out when her pt occasionally has a brief a/b episode and she's grabbing the ambubag, ready to call a code.

i love how you guys tolerate me down there!:):heartbeat

we love you guys and, believe me, we're nothing but glad to see you :).

Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

When I first met my son in the NICU (I was his nurse before I became his mother) the very first thing he did after report was to wee over the foot of the bed into the trash can @ the bottom of the bed! I thought that was a very remarkable feat for someone who weighed

Specializes in NICU.

When you get super duper excited about the glob of... basically 80 year old man/2 pack a day smoker phlegm you suction out of the back of your baby's throat and show it off to your podmate and actually utter the words "Look at my banana slug!!!"

True story. And I wonder why all my coworkers think I'm insane. :bugeyes:

Specializes in NICU.
When you get super duper excited about the glob of... basically 80 year old man/2 pack a day smoker phlegm you suction out of the back of your baby's throat and show it off to your podmate and actually utter the words "Look at my banana slug!!!"

True story. And I wonder why all my coworkers think I'm insane. :bugeyes:

But it sure makes you feel like you accomplished something to pull that out :).

Specializes in NICU.
When you get super duper excited about the glob of... basically 80 year old man/2 pack a day smoker phlegm you suction out of the back of your baby's throat and show it off to your podmate and actually utter the words "Look at my banana slug!!!"

True story. And I wonder why all my coworkers think I'm insane. :bugeyes:

I love when you actually feel like you accomplished something after suctioning... like when their plugs are so big and thick that you clog up 3 nasal aspirators trying to get them out!!!

You know you're a NICU nurse when....

the newborn sized sleeper you're staring at looks HUGE!!!

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