Comments on: NICU Nurses Good and Bad

By: brightred

brightred — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 05:37:44 +0000

I am so sorry you had a nurse tell you that.
I truly hope she was fired. No telling how she
talked to the parents of other babies she took
care of. Anytime anyone has a bad nurse or
a bad doctor, please do not hesitate to contact
that person’s supervisor and don’t stop until
action has been taken. If you have to go higher
up on the supervisor chain then do it. That behavior is totally unacceptable.

By: Janel Hulbert

Janel Hulbert — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 20:08:57 +0000

Thank you for posting this. I wasn’t sure if this was just our experience or if everyone felt this way.

You already have so much emotional stress when you baby is in the NICU and grouchy nurses don’t help out the whole situation.

By: Ann

Ann — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 20:08:59 +0000

My baby girl was born at 23 weeks and 5 days, we are 9 weeks into our long stay and i struggle everyday with all the different personalitlies and the way the nurses do things, we are in a major hospital and i get different nurses all the time so you can never get use to the same nurse. I go home drained often because you are told one thing and how … See Moreto do something and then next time you do it you get told that its the wrong way because you have a different nurse. Some days i leave the hospital worried because i have a nurse that doesnt seem very attentive and will ignore alarms or the nurses and i didnt see eye to eye eg. because i think she is hot and ask her to check my babies temp and they might get stroppy because they think you are telling them how to do their job, and you just dont know if you should say something or just hope that when i leave they do their job. Its such a worring, mentally draining time.

By: Syl

Syl — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 20:08:08 +0000

Totally, i agree!

By: Savannah

Savannah — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 20:07:53 +0000

i totally agree- i had some nurses that almost had me in tears while i was in the nicu because they were pushing their ideas, feelings, and thoughts on how things should be and how many times a day i needed to be there- while working a 40 hr week while my daughter being in the hospital i did the best that i could- apparently some of them thought it wasn’t good enough, 3-4 times a day while working was the best that i could do. but then i had a few nurses that were the best ever!

By: Rebekah

Rebekah — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 20:07:37 +0000

I totally agree with that. I say that my son while in the ICU would react with better breathing when he had a good nurse.

By: Marilee

Marilee — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 20:07:17 +0000

I had a perfect mix of the worst nurses and best all in the same hospital. I loved my oldest preemie’s night nurses. They would take photos of her for us when she was awake at night. And then we were allowed to just sit next to her while she slept as long as we wished.

Now one of the morning nurses that filled in on holiday’s which happened to be… See More thanksgiving decided to take it upon her self to tear our heart apart on a holiday we truly felt thankful to God for sending us our child. She said “I don’t know why you care so much because this isn’t your child at all until you may or may not take her home. Until then she doesn’t belong to you.”

Thankfully we had a kind doctor who felt that parents of NICU children deserved the best care and we never saw that nurse again. A year and a half later when our younger preemie daughter stayed at the same hospital we found that all the nurses took the same care and love for our daughter that the night nurses a year before did. The photos of our children during their waking hours and uplifting stories of their tiny accomplishments made our NICU experience a strengthening time in our lives.

By: Diana

Diana — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 20:06:47 +0000

I am a mother of a preemie baby boy who was born at 7 months and who will also be turning 2 this month. I am really glad someone wrote this…I too had a bad experience with a few bad nurses, but also I have to say with some very gentle and caring ones too. You cant imagine how I felt leaving my son with the nurses that were not very nice :-( I … See Morecried every night I left the hospital. I slept very little because all I would think about was my baby. I would get up very early to rush over there to be by his side. I have always known Ive wanted to be a registered nurse, and now that I am pursuing that career, and the experience that I went through with my son, I’ve have decided that the NICU is where I want be. Not only do I want to be there to comfort and care for these preemies but also to comfort and reassure the parents that their little one is in good hands. That they can go home and rest, especially the mother whom in reality most of these women gave birth to these preemies and havent had much rest like how they need. A nurse does have a HUGE impact on this experience, and hopefully we will get more and more new gentle and caring NICU nurses for our babies.

By: Stacey

Stacey — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 20:06:25 +0000

wow…so glad someone wrote that. I actually had to turn a nurse in while we were there. The wait between shifts made a huge difference sometimes. You could feel the mood was just bad on some days and then great on others. Us moms are so raw and scared. One bad nurse can ruin your trust in the whole system. The nurse I turned in held my baby … See Moreup like a piece of ham and told me that it didn’t matter if I fed him or her, that he would never know the difference. Then she ran me out before I could breast feed. It had been hours and hours and so I had to go pump. I knew that I had the right to be there so I went and asked why she made me leave. It was awful. They told me that she should not have done that and that I could request she not take care of my baby again.I think she quit or got fired. Scary. On the other hand…most were unbelievably wonderful and cared for my baby as if he were the most precious thing in there.

By: Meisha

Meisha — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 20:06:03 +0000

So true.we’ve has some of the best nurses and some of the worse.the great ones know kaydence name and all her likesand dislikes and in a room full of preemies she is not just another baby.they give there all.then we’ve had some that if i told all the horrible things they did or said u would think i made it up.their attitude can determine your day,good or bad.and u dont need negative energy around the babies

By: Cindy

Cindy — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 20:05:41 +0000

I totally agree… you never know what floats their boat… We spend 120 days in the NICU and I most say I was very lucky because our experience was not bad at all, but I know some nurses have that power of “breaking” your visititation.
Sometimes if they do not have anything smart to say might as well don’t say anything… I have a 25 weeker as well a baby girl born on 10/3/09

By: Marie

Marie — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 20:05:25 +0000

Angela- my daughter is 6 months old now. LOL she was born 8/8/09. Della was 26 weeks when she was born. It is a very different experience with a micropreemie.

By: Imani

Imani — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 20:05:07 +0000

I totally agree with that statement. My son is a mirco preemie (born at 24 weeks) and it was very important once I got to know nurses that I got my primary nurse without them I never felt 100% comfortable that my child was getting the best care. I think some Nurse do not understand we already have to leave are newborn everyday, let alone leaving them in care of a Nurse that is rude or mean or rough with our children. Thank God for primary nursing. It really helped my NICU experience.

By: Marie

Marie — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 20:04:51 +0000

That was just one of the nurses. Another one told me my daughter will never look me in my eyes, and she will never be a “normal” baby. Well she looks me in the eyes every waking second of every day. She looks 100% “NORMAL” and is even advanced for her gestational age.

By: Angela

Angela — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 20:04:30 +0000

Marie – how old is your daughter now? My son was 1 lb 8 oz born 7/8/09 at 25 weeks. I have a ton of questions for other moms of micropreemie born around 25 weeks. It is so lonely because preemies as small as ours are so very different than full term babies and preemies that arent born as early.

By: Angela

Angela — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 20:04:15 +0000

YES! I agree 100%….We had one nurse that worked with our mircopreemie for the 1st time 2 weeks before he came home after a 92 day stay in the NICU. She had me SO depressed by the time I left that day. Once we got back our primary nurses, I felt better. Wehn I walked in and our primary nurse was back I almost cried because I felt better with her … See Moreand knew knew my baby and would not just “tube him”. She tried to bottle feed him. You are told mixed information and this nurse didnt really even know my little fellow. Sometimes I wondered if some of those nurses even had a clue what I was going through. I am curious to see if everyone else feels the same.

By: Marie

Marie — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 20:03:47 +0000

Urg I agree. The hospital my daughter was transferred to out of my town has the worst nurses. One of the nurses had to come in on her vacation and was P.Oed. She took it out on everyone. She wasn’t in the mood to talk. Well I didn’t leave the NICU for her whole shift because I was afraid she was going to hurt my daughter who was just 1 lb 13 … See Moreozs. The hospital that she was transferred back to in my home town was the best. I felt so at home and made life long friends with those nurses. They are all angels in that NICU.

By: Mary

Mary — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 02:02:22 +0000

We did not experience any NICU nurse that were not wonderful, caring and loving to both our baby and us. We did however experience a pediatric nurse that we did not like and were very happy that it was the night we had to sleep over and our last night there. In our hospital the baby moves up in the NICU, to having one nurse to themself, to having 2 nurses to a baby, then move to the other side where there can be up to 4 babies to a nurse and the nurse can be a LPN rather than an RN, then the baby moves to the pediatric unit and they spend one full day and night, and that night they have the parents sleep in with the baby. As I write this maybe it was two nights, I can’t remember now almost 5 years ago. But anyway, we did not like the nurse we had that night. We had family that for the first time could come and see the baby come, and she insisted on continuing to come into the room, she also insisted on telling us how to nurse and change diapers, as if that was not all gone over since birth. She was just very intrusive, and then whenever we did get the baby to sleep she would come in and wake her up. She made us feel uncomfortable, uneasy, and like she was watching over every move we made, even when we tried to take showers she was watching over us and not leaving the room. So you are right about how the nurses make you feel. I am glad we did not have that in the NICU.