New(ish) Nurse in ICU

Specialties Critical

Published

Hi Everyone! I just got a new job in the ICU! I was wondering if anyone has a report sheet that would be good for ICU patients. The one I was using for Med/Surg will not do and I would hate to reinvent the wheel.

Also, I was wondering what are some of the top diagnoses I will encounter in the ICU. We get a lot of sepsis, overdoses, hypothermia protocol for cardiac arrest patients, and DKA. Can you tell me what else to expect?

Thanks!!!

Specializes in ICU.

Expect the unexpected. Could be anything. Could be brain masses, left ventricular hernias, strangulated bowels, who knows? You might send them out for treatment, but anything could roll through the door.

The last two units I worked on had committees that developed the report sheets we used, I'm surprised that yours doesn't? Don't write your own sheet if one is filled out for you in report. I would spend valuable time updating the unit report sheet and the on coming nurse would start with a blank sheet and start all over. What? That's just a waste of time.

Good luck!

Specializes in MICU - CCRN, IR, Vascular Surgery.

See what your coworkers take report on and see if that works for you. That's what I've been doing for the year and a half since transferring from med surg to the ICU, but I decided to start using a coworkers super detailed sheet to take report on now because all I really have to do is circle things. We can use whatever report sheets we want to, but we do have to fill out a detailed form every shift for the multidisciplinary rounding the next day. It's basically an SBAR with assessment data on it as well.

We see a lot of what you've already listed. We've also been seeing a lot of dead gut lately. And of course the ever present respiratory failure, pneumonia, copd exacerbation, etc.

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
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