My old nemesis, the NICU: A flashback (Part I)

Some of you might remember the many subdued, nuanced posts I made in 2013 about how my NICU sub-internship made me want to quit medicine, quit life, become a hobo who hops trains for a living and never have to calculate a TFL or realize I forgot to write down a UOP or adjust 42 meds for the brand-new weight of +5 grams ever again so help me god. But more likely none of you remember these NICU sub-I posts because, in looking back to link to them, I realize I must have deleted them all in a fit of self-awareness. Regardless, it was in 2013 – and lucky for you I lack that same sense of self-aware professionalism 2 years later- so LET ME GIVE YOU A RECAP: My first day, I was given a “feeder and grower” baby who was supposed to be my simple exercise in NICU mathematics (calculating intake per kilo, counting apneas / bradys / destats, etc.) My first day, said baby had an eye exam and promptly decided to stop breathing, stop pumping blood, and just generally feign death. Which is apparently a thing that NICU babies like to do. My first day I was essentially somewhat convinced, for at least the duration of the code blue, that I had murdered the baby. Probably by failing to properly calculate the fluids/kg/hr. My second day, I had to present the above to a new attending (who apparently didn’t hear about the code on sign-out? What?) while the mother was in the room (What?) It was my first NICU patient presentation. It went poorly. The senior resident...
Source: Action Potential - Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs