Uncomfortable with NICU nurse?

Xath

I'm not sure if I'm overreacting, so I wanted to voice my concerns with you ladies and see if I'm being unreasonable.

I really liked Sam's first 2 nurses. This morning he got a new day shift nurse and I'm not really comfortable with her:

The first thing she did was call another nurse in to explain how the CPAP pressure worked, because she didn't know how to regulate it.

Then when she was taking his vitals, one of his alarms went off. I asked her what it meant, and she said she didn't know; when an alarm goes off she visually looks at the baby and if he appears ok she just ignores it.

She also messed up his date/time of birth this morning, so she wasn't giving him all of the treatments he needed. She said she thought he was born at midnight this morning, and I had to convince her that he was born at noon yesterday.

I called down to check on him from my room. The other nurses said they'd call me if anything was different. But she opened with "I wasn't going to call you with this, but since you called, it looks like he's developing jaundice so we're going to put him under the bili light."

These things make me nervous, especially the CPAP issue because my daughter died following a pneumothorax after her CPAP pressure was reduced. Am I overreacting? What are my options? Can I request a different nurse, and how do I do so tactfully?

Thank you.

nblondheim

You're your child's advocate and those things would make me worry as well. There should be someone that's head of the nursing staff or you should have a case manager. I reported my issues to our case manager who took them to the head of nursing. They then came to talk to me and we never had the nurse again. I suggest finding someone like that to express your concerns to. I'm sorry your dealing with this!!

KTZ17

I am so sorry you are dealing with this! You can most certainly request a different nurse. I don't think that you're overreacting, and just telling the charge nurse the facts just as you wrote them out here would be tactful enough. It's not like you have something personally against this nurse - you do not agree with the care she is providing your baby. I would also let the charge nurse and head neonatologist know about your previous loss. I think that should be taken into account when selecting your son's care. Best wishes and please update us if you speak to someone!

Labyrinth3000

Talk to the case nurse in charge. You'll feel a ton better afterwards when they give you a competent nurse you like. It makes all the difference!

Xath

My husband talked to the neonatologist and I mentioned my concerns to my OB, who said they sounded completely reasonable. She called the charge nurse, and found out that since they've been so full that they have a lot of travel nurses in who aren't normally NICU nurses, and she'd make sure that we got regular NICU nurses from now on.

My husband also found out when he talked to the neonatologist that this particular nurse also happened to be the one assigned to our daughter the night she died, which may be why I had such an immediate reaction to her, even though I didn't remember most of that night.