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AMA
Original poster

I'm a Neonatal Nurse AMA

188 replies

CasualDress · 27/07/2018 10:03

Hi just thought this might be of interest to some people.
I've name changed to keep this separate from my other threads.
I'm going to work shortly but promise I will answer any questions when I get home.

OP posts:
slippermaiden · 12/08/2018 23:27

I'm a NICU nurse too. I'm place marking to read this later x

FlowerPowerCuppa · 13/08/2018 15:46

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FlowerPowerCuppa · 13/08/2018 15:47

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hendricksy · 13/08/2018 15:49

I am also very grateful as my son most definitely would not be here if it weren't for SCBU. I only wish they had been a bit more honest with me . I know it's because of the compensation culture but I think our journey may have been easier if everyone said what they were thinking along the way .

Crunchymum · 13/08/2018 20:02

A few questions if you don't mind

  • would you say they majority of your babies are premmies? (Seemed like it was mostly premmies when we were in)
  • do you judge parents who aren't there for much of the time? (We shared a nursery with some babies who were rarely visited and the nurses did seem to judge)
  • do you have nurseries ordered in terms of how poorly babies are? (We went from nursery 3, to 5 to 8 [8 = SCBU])
  • have you ever had any rare conditions in? (My baby has a very rare genetic condition!)
  • do you have children of your own?
Crunchymum · 13/08/2018 20:09

Also... and this is very personal..

Do you cuddle / fuss the babies that don't cry? We shared with a massive crier and if the parents weren't there the nurses would always attend to this baby immediately probably to shut him up Grin

My baby never cried (she wasn't a premmie and was never on oxygen, she had very basic monitors on) and one thing that upsets me is that because she didn't cry [part of her condition is they don't cry!!] was she was just left to it in the hours we were not there???

MiniMaxi · 13/08/2018 20:19

Another thank you! DS was born at 33+6 and we were so fortunate he only needed to spend two days in the NICU (followed by some time on postnatal). The care he received was wonderful.

This has served as a reminder that we keep meaning to send the unit some photos now he’s nearly two!!

Original poster
CasualDress · 13/08/2018 20:31

crunchymum
I would say most of our babies are preemies but as we also do surgery we take in babies from outside the area for surgery, so these can be term.
We do have some rare conditions, again as we take from a Wide area we tend to see more conditions than a smaller unit. We are a level 3
I really don't judge parents who can't be with their baby. I said in another post that some parents live out of area with other children so may only visit every other day, or mum may pop in alone for an hour a day.
We have some dads that will come and visit before they go to bed, so 11pm every night.
One dad used to visit every morning at 5am on his way to work, have a cuddle then be on his way.

Occasionally we have a mum who is desperate to breast feed but never visits so baby can't go to the breast.We then have to have a chat, if we can help by getting mum to 'room in' we will, or mum may then decide formula works better for her circumstance.
We have rooms 1-5 , 1 being SCBU the rest high care/ICU
We would ideally like to cuddle all babies all day but time doesn't allow. I always try to cuddle and comfort a crying baby. If I knew your baby couldn't cry I would make sure he still got cuddles. Was he a TOF by any chance? We dont ignore babies, theres always a student nurse around for lovely cuddles!!
Yes I have children,
I hope I've answered your questions x

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Original poster
CasualDress · 13/08/2018 20:35

Thank you minimax
I'm glad you only had a brief stay with us. And yes do send photos! He will be remembered!

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noideawhattodonow · 03/09/2018 21:16

Can I ask what path you took for your job?

I'm a newly qualified and have been offered two posts and I'm having a hard time deciding and my time is running out

Original poster
CasualDress · 06/09/2018 09:03

noidea congratulations on having 2 posts to choose from! what are they?
I was a late comer really. I worked on the nnu as a nursery nurse then they were doing bursarys for nurse training, so I decided to go for it.
Then got a job back on the same NNU, I love itSmile
Neonates is a 'train on the job' post. we have adult and paed trained nurses aswell as ex midwives from the old daysGrin
I did child nursing.

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noideawhattodonow · 06/09/2018 10:26

Thank you, I decided to take the tieratry unit rather than the SRU. I'm on a SRU at the moment as a student and as I'm adult trained I'm very overwhelmed at getting these job offers!

Original poster
CasualDress · 06/09/2018 11:22

I think I would have made the same choice out of the 2. I hope you really enjoy itFlowers

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