[canadian_girl75]

As an update for those f you who heard from me last month I am now in my 3rd week of orientation in PICU and absolutely loving it. I was reading some of the other threads on this forum and I have to say that I am definatly glad I waited a year before coming to the unit. However, In all fairness I must say that even with all the adult training and 30% peds we saw in Emerg almost everything is completely new here. From the tools and supplys we use to the acceptable norms for vitals. So, in essance it feels like I am new all over again. My first shift I came in to a new cardiac post op with a Sat of 70% and I was like...ahhh...does anyone see the sat reading? and they were like...oh yeah...thats normal for this kid infact we dont want it above 80%...It took me a while to get my head around it all but I was satisfied after understanding the pathology of the defect.

It is so interesting here. The unit is Cardiac Critical Care Unit and we do everything here under the sun that possibly be done. The fontan and Berlin heart procedures and ECMO and transplants and open and close sternums at the bedside. It is so intersting. Our orientation is 3months class and clinical and 3 months buddied. I am glad it so long as there is so much to learn. Our New grads have 6 months buddied and then 2 months in the same room as thier preceptor. Its a really great place and the culture is so much different than in the community setting.

In any case, just an update..good luck to all

[Kimbalou]

Glad to hear it's going well for you! I, too, find it challenging compared to the NICU lately. I just completed the PALS course over the last 2 days and passed!! YAY!
The course was full of good info and was also challenging and scary, too.
I think ALL critical care nurses should take PALs, especially NICU nurses. The NRP course doesn't begin to cover what I learned in PALS!

[marilynmom]

I'm in love with the PICU as well

I'm a senior in nursing school and landed a job as a nurse partner in a large PICU in a teaching hospital. It is basically like a preceptorship program so that we will have 1 year experience before we graduate and can transition from student to RN.

I love it!