(no subject)
I love working in the NICU (Newborn ICU). It’s a lot of fun. The nurses are great, the babies are cute, and there’s a nice variety of patients that move through the unit. But one of the most common comments that I get when I tell them I’m working in the NICU is, “it must be so hard to work there.” I don’t see it that way. Granted, it can be very difficult working there. You see so many babies that are so critically ill, that it tears at your emotions. So many of them are barely hanging by a thread, require intensive care and life-saving techniques. They’re on ventilators, heavily sedated, hooked up to machines, and have tubes coming out of every open patch of skin and orifice. And the sad reality is, for the ones that are so sick, some of them do not ever get off the vents or heavy sedation. Personally, the hardest part is watching them lay there and struggle against the ET tubes, knowing that they won’t ever be free of them because the parents want everything done for them. It’s not that I want them to let go, but I hate to see their suffering prolonged. All life is precious, but it is the quality of life that is most important (in my opinion). So it is hard for me to see some of these kids that are not progressing, not getting better, and their parents want everything done. The parents don’t always understand what it takes to keep the child alive or what it will mean for the infant. Sometimes it’s better to just let the baby go. But just as they might not understand what is going on or what the prognosis is, we don’t understand what it means for the parent to keep the child alive. What it comes down to is a difference in values. For me, simply existing isn’t living, and it is hard for me to watch a child with no prognosis or chance to be off a vent, yet kept alive without any quality of life.
But working in the NICU isn’t all sad. Most of the infants do very well and get to go home to their families. They’re amazingly resilient. It’s a matter of helping them get better. Over the weeks, you see them get stronger, gain weight, and learn to bottle feed. The parents come in to hold and feed their children. You can hear the excitement of a mother when she hears her son “graduated” from an isolette to a crib. These are things that overcome the sadness of some of the other children. And the best part is when you pick up a crying child and they calm and fall asleep in your arms while holding your fingers in their small hands. Actually, the best part is when they’re sleeping quietly in their cribs and stable so that the alarms don’t go off every minute haha and the coolest thing is that you can save a baby's life by flicking their foot or poking at them
Will be back home in SF soon, hopefully with a job as well...
But working in the NICU isn’t all sad. Most of the infants do very well and get to go home to their families. They’re amazingly resilient. It’s a matter of helping them get better. Over the weeks, you see them get stronger, gain weight, and learn to bottle feed. The parents come in to hold and feed their children. You can hear the excitement of a mother when she hears her son “graduated” from an isolette to a crib. These are things that overcome the sadness of some of the other children. And the best part is when you pick up a crying child and they calm and fall asleep in your arms while holding your fingers in their small hands. Actually, the best part is when they’re sleeping quietly in their cribs and stable so that the alarms don’t go off every minute haha and the coolest thing is that you can save a baby's life by flicking their foot or poking at them
Will be back home in SF soon, hopefully with a job as well...