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Just_Some_
I'm a freshmen in high school and Im doing a project for my avid class on what we want to be, and I need to know what classes ill need to take and what ill do as a nicu nurse and I would like to know the pay. Thank you.
Answer
A Neonatal Nurse in an RN who generally works in the NICU (Neonatal/Newborn Intensive Care Unit) of a larger hospital. Neonatal nurses care for premature and ill newborns; that can entail starting an IV or other method of access, administering meds, watching and evaluating monitors, and resuscitation. They work with Neonatalogists, Pediatricians, Respiratory Therapists, Neonatal Nurse Practitioners, and different kinds of developmental therapists.
You need to become an RN first. I would strongly encourage you to go straight into a BSN program and forget an Associate Degree program. For one thing, everyone and their cousin is vying for admission into an Associate Degree program.....so much so that the once "2.5 year program" is now more of a "3.5- 4 year program" due to waiting lists for the clinical phase. You can get a BSN from a state university in 4 years.
Next. DO NOT wait until you have graduated from college to start looking for a nursing job. Most hospitals have Student Nurse Externs (once you've completed a semester or two of clinicals) and they are nearly always offered new grad positions. If you start at a hospital that isn't a Children's Specialty hospital, you will likely need to work Mother/Baby or Postpartum for about a year. You will be taking care of healthy newborns (and their moms) during this period and it will help you to be familiar with caring for the childbearing family. After about a year, most places will let you transfer to the NICU since you already have experience with newborns (and you will have worked with a lot of the NICU staff during your year of Postpartum.
Now, if you are lucky enough to live near a Children's Hospital, most of them have new grad programs that will start you right into the NICU. Be forewarned, these new grad programs are often for BSN grads only. There is a BIG trend towards making the BSN the minimum for new grads at a lot of larger hospital networks. That means that should you earn an ASN instead, you'd need experience before being hired at one of those hospitals.
To earn the BSN, you need to complete the classes necessary for that degree at the university you attend. While similar, not all colleges/universities have the same courses for the BSN. The best way to find that specific info is to find the website of a local university or one you'd like to attend and see what the course requirements are for the BSN....it will usually include prerequisite classes (general ed, science, liberal arts, and a "preview nursing" for your freshman and sophomore years, and then the nursing classes (clinical, research, theory, and management) your junior and senior years.
For example, here's the BSN course requirements for University of South Carolina: http://www.sc.edu/nursing/Brochures/BSNBrochureJan2011.pdf
and here's the one for UCLA: http://nursing.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=73
A new grad RN in the US can expect to earn about $23-26 an hour, starting base pay, in the Midwest. A few dollars more an hour in California, NYC, and Boston, and a few dollars less an hour in the South (with the exception of Atlanta and larger Florida cities).
A Neonatal Nurse in an RN who generally works in the NICU (Neonatal/Newborn Intensive Care Unit) of a larger hospital. Neonatal nurses care for premature and ill newborns; that can entail starting an IV or other method of access, administering meds, watching and evaluating monitors, and resuscitation. They work with Neonatalogists, Pediatricians, Respiratory Therapists, Neonatal Nurse Practitioners, and different kinds of developmental therapists.
You need to become an RN first. I would strongly encourage you to go straight into a BSN program and forget an Associate Degree program. For one thing, everyone and their cousin is vying for admission into an Associate Degree program.....so much so that the once "2.5 year program" is now more of a "3.5- 4 year program" due to waiting lists for the clinical phase. You can get a BSN from a state university in 4 years.
Next. DO NOT wait until you have graduated from college to start looking for a nursing job. Most hospitals have Student Nurse Externs (once you've completed a semester or two of clinicals) and they are nearly always offered new grad positions. If you start at a hospital that isn't a Children's Specialty hospital, you will likely need to work Mother/Baby or Postpartum for about a year. You will be taking care of healthy newborns (and their moms) during this period and it will help you to be familiar with caring for the childbearing family. After about a year, most places will let you transfer to the NICU since you already have experience with newborns (and you will have worked with a lot of the NICU staff during your year of Postpartum.
Now, if you are lucky enough to live near a Children's Hospital, most of them have new grad programs that will start you right into the NICU. Be forewarned, these new grad programs are often for BSN grads only. There is a BIG trend towards making the BSN the minimum for new grads at a lot of larger hospital networks. That means that should you earn an ASN instead, you'd need experience before being hired at one of those hospitals.
To earn the BSN, you need to complete the classes necessary for that degree at the university you attend. While similar, not all colleges/universities have the same courses for the BSN. The best way to find that specific info is to find the website of a local university or one you'd like to attend and see what the course requirements are for the BSN....it will usually include prerequisite classes (general ed, science, liberal arts, and a "preview nursing" for your freshman and sophomore years, and then the nursing classes (clinical, research, theory, and management) your junior and senior years.
For example, here's the BSN course requirements for University of South Carolina: http://www.sc.edu/nursing/Brochures/BSNBrochureJan2011.pdf
and here's the one for UCLA: http://nursing.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=73
A new grad RN in the US can expect to earn about $23-26 an hour, starting base pay, in the Midwest. A few dollars more an hour in California, NYC, and Boston, and a few dollars less an hour in the South (with the exception of Atlanta and larger Florida cities).
How does induction work at 38 weeks?
Frances.
I'm currently 34w3d and yesterday at my appointment I was told that they may want to have me induced at 38 weeks due to me being diabetic.
We will be talking about it in more depth at my 36 week appointment but I was just wondering about the procedure if the baby hasn't engaged by that point. Is it something that would happen naturally as the labour went on?
Anyone else been in the same situation?
Answer
I was induced at 38 weeks with my first child due to PIH. The baby was still very high, I was not dilated or effaced when we started the induction. I was to report to the L & D unit at 7 AM so they could monitor the baby for an hour prior to starting the induction. After that was done my OB arrived and placed Cytoek, a small pill, on my cervix to help dilation. I had to lay flat for 3 hours. At 11 AM she came back and since I was dilated to 2 CM broke my water which started contractions about an hour after my water broke. Since the contractions were not as strong as they would have liked them at 3 PM they hooked me up to a Pitocin drip and it worked great. The contractions got very strong and very close together. By 6 PM I need an epidural, I finally received it at 8 PM. I was able to relax at that point. However, I feel it slowed my dilation process as I was stuck at 7-8 CM for hours. At 11 PM my OB tol dme that in 1 hour if I had not dilated fully to 10 CM I was going to have to have a c-section for lack of progression. When she came back at midnight I was fully dilated and stared to push. My epidural ran out around 1 AM and I pushed without any pain medication, which seemed to be more helpful and she was born at 2:38 AM, 6 lbs 13.5 oz. Recovery was almost instant, I had absolutely no problems. Best of luck to you!
I was induced at 38 weeks with my first child due to PIH. The baby was still very high, I was not dilated or effaced when we started the induction. I was to report to the L & D unit at 7 AM so they could monitor the baby for an hour prior to starting the induction. After that was done my OB arrived and placed Cytoek, a small pill, on my cervix to help dilation. I had to lay flat for 3 hours. At 11 AM she came back and since I was dilated to 2 CM broke my water which started contractions about an hour after my water broke. Since the contractions were not as strong as they would have liked them at 3 PM they hooked me up to a Pitocin drip and it worked great. The contractions got very strong and very close together. By 6 PM I need an epidural, I finally received it at 8 PM. I was able to relax at that point. However, I feel it slowed my dilation process as I was stuck at 7-8 CM for hours. At 11 PM my OB tol dme that in 1 hour if I had not dilated fully to 10 CM I was going to have to have a c-section for lack of progression. When she came back at midnight I was fully dilated and stared to push. My epidural ran out around 1 AM and I pushed without any pain medication, which seemed to be more helpful and she was born at 2:38 AM, 6 lbs 13.5 oz. Recovery was almost instant, I had absolutely no problems. Best of luck to you!
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