Hard to believe my last post was over a month ago. Time feels like it has gone by really quickly, but at the same time I feel like I’ve been in residency for months already. I’m writing now because I’m on the night shift in the NICU which is not as busy as it may sound. Similar to nights in the MICU, most of the primary tasks are done during the day and at night we are just responding to calls and questions from the nursing staff, etc. We also go to any deliveries that happen overnight and admit any babies to the unit that need it, but nothing so far.
I keep telling people that ask that NICU while super different from the MICU in so many ways, is also kinda similar. The patients don’t talk to you and you are just kinda managing them without much input from them (of course if the adults are awake and conscious and have capacity they are always involved). There’s a lot of thinking and physiology talk which I like.
What is nice about the NICU is in most cases the patients are able to go home, and of course the babies are (usually) very cute.
There is a lot of optimization that happens here too. We are always looks at and adjusting patients in’s and out’s (I/O’s) which theoretically need to be carefully balanced, especially in the premature ones. We are constantly looking at their nutrition and how many calories babies are getting, how many macronutrients they are getting and how many electrolytes/ micronutrients they need, and assessing/ changing these things on a daily basis. It is interesting stuff, just very different than on the adult side where we do pay attention to this stuff, just not as closely.
As a side note, I had a really rough weekend personally. Still having a tough time, but kinda thankful to have work to distract me. Nothing I feel like elaborating on now because I’m still going/ working through it, just wanted to make a note of it.
nANIMOv 