[RNFELICITY]

I absolutely love being a nurse!

I love the ICU because it challenges me. It makes me think on my feet and sometimes make educated guesses in the best interest of my patient. There is a great deal of respect given to you as an ICU nurse by other nurses in the hospital. We have greater autonomy to order things and do things without a specific order than a floor nurse has. We have a more focused relationship with our patients and families because of the amount of time that is spent in each patient's room.

The thing that was the hardest to get used to was the loss of patients. When you deal with the sickest of the sick, the outcome is not always that they go home and lead a happy healthy life. I have come to really have a much greater respect for an honorable death...a good death.

[blueheaven]

The thing I hate the most (I work in a teaching hospital) is when we get know-it-all interns and residents who totally have NO IDEA what they are doing and I have to go up the food chain in order to get appropriate care for my patient!!!!!!!!!!!!

[micurn2000]

likes
autonomy
challenge
great learning environment
patient advocacy

dislikes
emotional impact
difficult family
not seeing as many success as i would like

[deeDawntee]

The hardest part for me is when a patient is being kept alive when there is no hope for recovery. These patients are usually on a vent, have been trached a few weeks ago because they could not be extubated, are being fed through a peg tube which was placed when the trach was placed. I look at these corpses and know the hundreds of thousands of dollars that are being spent and can't help but think about how well that money could be used for children raised in poverty etc. I don't remember the statistics (maybe someone can help me out here) but the percent of Medicare dollars that are spent on the last 30 days of people's lives in unbelievably high. Obviously, this is a primary ethical issue, but I don't know why this culture thinks that keeping a person alive for as long as possible with any means possible is a meaningful and worthwhile endeavor. I think it is mean and torture. I know many nurses who leave ICU nursing for this reason more than any other.

I like ICU nursing for many reason as well. It is really cool to see someone reach the brink of death and bring them back. There is no doubt in mind that nursing care in that setting makes a profound difference. We are the ones keeping these people alive!!

Learning ICU nursing is when being a nurse really came together for me. That is when I really understood how the human body worked. It is invaluable training.

[RNFELICITY]

Originally Posted by deeDawntee

Learning ICU nursing is when being a nurse really came together for me. That is when I really understood how the human body worked. It is invaluable training.

This is sooooo true at least in my case.

I have worked on many floors in my years and never really HAD to learn the intricasies of the human body and the significance of lab values beyond the norm. But when you go to the ICU, little tiny changes can be the start of an avalanche and you have to really be on your toes.