Our Pediatric census markedly dropped the previous days so it's time for me to get tossed out to other floors and help them out. Unfortunately, it was my turn to get tossed out. I can't help it but to accept the fact that it was my turn anyway to get floated.
Usually we get floated to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Nursery, and Couplet Care Units. But because I am a male, I am being banned to get floated to Post-partum because of the newly delivered mom's status.
It's been a while back in September since I got floated to Newborn Nursery. I remember the last time I got floated there was when I took care of that Baby Jane Doe #31. I even remembered I made a blog about that baby here. I have no idea where she is now. I hope she is in good hands.
As an experienced Pediatric nurse and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit trained nurse floating to Newborn Nursery was an easy job for me. I always wanted to come back there all the time because the transition for the babies coming in and out the unit was so rapid and quick.
Once I took care of the initial newborn care, warming and stabilizing the baby, and giving them their initial bath and care; the baby is ready to be sent out to bond with their mother in the room.
I came up to the Newborn Nursery with only one boarder staying there. A boarder, by the way, is a baby that needs special attention or sometimes a baby who needs to be closely monitored and whose moms were been discharged, such as babies who have hyperbilirubinemia cases or babies whose moms were still left in antepartum for more close monitoring.
The baby was actually isolated for 48 hours in Newborn Nursery from the mom who was positive for Influenza A and B. The isolation will be culminating at 10 pm that night then after that the baby will be sent out to the mom for couplet care. But apparently, I opted to held the baby until 5 am when my admission started to keep coming.
At first my admission was sporadically few, coming every two hours at the least, just in time for me to finish up the care and send out the new baby to the couplet care to bond and stay with the mom the whole night.
But when it started to get busy at 5 am I decided to transfer out that quarantined baby out of Newborn Nursery and off to the mom's room after I took the blood specimens for direct bilirubin ordered for the early morning labs and the due PKU test and Hearing Screen Test. At least, I did all the tests before the baby came out and went to the mom's room.
All in all, I had five newborn admissions. I gave them initial care and bath and had stabilized their vital signs prior to sending them out to couplet care.
I ended up holding and took care of one baby though as a boarder because the mom had to stay in antepartum unit due to the fact that she needs to be closely monitored for a mild PIH and is on a magnesium sulfate drip and her blood pressure needs to be stabilized before she goes up to the post-partum unit.
My night at Newborn Nursery that time was very routinary and uneventful. I was able to perform and carry it out well. If given another chance to go back there again I would love to do it again and I will volunteer to go back there all the time.
Doing baby care for a normal newborn baby was just an easy task for me. I always loved to hold and feed babies, gave them their initial bath and care, perform necessary blood tests to them before sending them to their moms, stabilizing and warming them well before sending them out to couplet care, and bunch of things needed to do for them.
Although paperworks was quite a nuisance but still I know I can handle it sometimes. I am so glad that the charge nurse was able to help me for it all the time and just left me do all the newborn assessment and care planning by myself.
Performing the Dubowitz or Ballards Assessment to determine the newborn's gestational age by examining the physical and neurological features of the newborn baby was so innate for me now. I can do it expertly and rapidly now unlike before in the past in which I am always struggling doing it all the time which gives a big toll on me.
So far, right now, I am very adept in doing it. I was so happy with that. And I am always 90% more accurate in my assessments. It takes a lot of years of practice for me to have it thoroughly mastered. I am so thankful for my constant exposure there all the time.
Filling up the cribs and bassinets with diapers, formulas, rubber nipples, dry wipes, alcohol swabs, baby shampoo, combs, bathing bowls etc. was a a tedious job but I am just enjoying my moments in that unit.
Maintaining enough supply for the constant flow of newborn baby admission to be stabilize in the nursery is very vital and essential to save time and energy for the nurses working in that closed unit. So in consideration for the oncoming shift nurses I have to fill up linens and supplies for their own convenience and then vice versa.
So far my night in the Newborn Nursery was excellent. I always loved to be there. And to take care of the newborn babies was a breath of fresh air for me apart from the busy and tedious work in my usual floor which is the Pediatric unit.
And this constant exposure to Newborn Nursery always add up enormously to my wide array of experiences and expert routines and job handiworks. I always treasure all my moments when I'm always there.
It's always a challenge to be there and I love to be challenged. We always have the opportunity to learn and grow everyday. And I always believed that challenge is an opportunity to learn.
I always loved it there all the time despite how slow or busy the unit is!
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