Fundamentals of Critical Care Support

[Jackfackmasta, ASN, RN]

Hi, I'm a level 3 nursing student and I was looking for critical care classes to take in my area and one of the level 1 hospital offers the FCCS course by the Society of Critical Care.

I called the contact person to see if I could take the course as a NS, she was very shocked I would want to do it and recommended I wait till I gradaute in may 2012 to take it. If I get into ICU because they will pay for it. I asked for some refrences for critical care and she gave me the above website and I found an online self direct version of the course above but it costs like 240 bucks.

I work in an ER, have my advanced CPR certifications and have been reading books on critical care. I feel taking this course would be very helpful for me when I graduate to have some understanding of ICU stuff. The contact person told me it is a very hard course and that a lot of the new nurses think its easy. If I do the self direct I can go at my pace and I get a book with it. I take CEUs from AACN but have been looking for a course that will give me more overall ICU stuff and this seems like it

Should I take it? How will nurse managers perceive me taking this course when they are looking at my application for ICU internship? thanks!

[umcRN, BSN, RN]

I didn't know there were critical care courses. I can imagine it would be very difficult to do while still in school. I started working in an ICU out of school and had a great New Grad program that was unit specific with 6 months of orientation to the unit with a gradual increase in patient acuity as well as classes. Worked pretty well for those who made it through.

[nyrn5125]

wait to get hired as an rn and it's free through your job most likely. you would have a better understanding of what they teach if you have experience as a nurse. it's a tough class. physician assistants and nurse practitioners , and experienced rn's are the main one's that seem to be taking it