Need a good ICU book

Specialties MICU

Published

Hi! I will be starting as a new ICU nurse the beginning of May. I have come from a Transitional ICU but we did not get Swans, alot of drips and CVVH....I was wondering about a good ICU book -- nursing or whatever.

oh, and any other advice for me!

thanks,

Erin

Specializes in Critical Care/ICU.

Another good critical care book I'd like to mention is titled, Clinical Wisdom and Interventions in Critical Care - A Thinking in Action Approach by Patricia Benner, Patricia Hooper-Kyriakidis, and Daphne Stannard, ©1999, ISBN 0721675115. Some may have read Patricia Benner before (Expertise in Nursing Practice, by Benner, et.al, 1996)

The goal of this book is to get those nurses who work in critical care to read the book and spontaneously respond, "you have put into words what I have always known about critical care nursing practice but had not expressed."

The book does not simplify or reduce critical care to principles in an attempt to make it easier to learn/or read. Instead, the book provides an amazingly whole picture enabling the learner/reader to visualize what critical care is really like and to comprehend the expectations placed on critical care nurses.

This book is made of of first-hand accounts of 205 staff and advanced practice nurses. The authors arranged with participating facilities to observe the critical care nurse at work taking first hand accounts of what the nurse is doing through an interview process as things happen (some of the interviews are done with nurses at my CTICU before I started working there! :)). This is THE book that describes for us what we have such a hard time describing - what we do, how we do it, and why. This book is VERY MUCH about critical thinking and clinical judgement based on VERY specific examples (the interviews).

Different in construction from most nursing or medical texts, it takes advantage of the depth of detail and intrigue found in "nurse stories." Every chapter is replete with real-life incidents used to illustrate the complex ideas and ambiguities inherent in caring for the critically ill.

All I can say is this book is excellent! I've read it twice, once just recently and once about 4 years ago. I can guarantee you that every single critical care nurse out there will love this book. I can't recommend it enough, especially for newcomers to nursing and critical care!

e fastfacts by kathy white of course, you could get the book or get it downloaded on your pda.

erinnRN said:
Hi! I will be starting as a new ICU nurse the beginning of May. I have come from a Transitional ICU but we did not get Swans, alot of drips and CVVH....I was wondering about a good ICU book -- nursing or whatever.

oh, and any other advice for me!

thanks,

Erin

MarkHammerschmidt said:
May I humbly recommend my series of free articles at www.icufaqs.org ?

Thanks so much for sharing your site! It's excellent!

Specializes in CCU.
MarkHammerschmidt said:
May I humbly recommend my series of free articles at http://www.icufaqs.org ?

Yepp! Very nice job for icufaqs. Thanks Mark!

A great reference that I find as a useful tool is -->Quick Reference to Critical Care by Nancy H. Diepenbrock. It's about 310 pages of great information. It's direct, informative and in language easily understandable. Good luck in ICU.

erinnRN said:
Hi! I will be starting as a new ICU nurse the beginning of May. I have come from a Transitional ICU but we did not get Swans, alot of drips and CVVH....I was wondering about a good ICU book -- nursing or whatever.

oh, and any other advice for me!

thanks,

Erin

Specializes in Critical Care Nursing.

The book is "The ICU Book" by Paul Marino...it is a great reference book for a new grad...Good Luck and welcome to critical care nursing

MarkHammerschmidt said:
May I humbly recommend my series of free articles at http://www.icufaqs.org ?

Hi Mark,

Just want to say that I'm so impressed with your notes. It is wonderful that you took the time to do this -- Even though I'm a nursing student, I printed them out and created a book for my reference later in my career - I'm interested in ICU nursing.

Thank you very much for your efforts.

Lia

"The ICU Book" by Marino is excellent!

MarkHammerschmidt said:
May I humbly recommend my series of free articles at http://www.icufaqs.org ?

Mark, bought your book online and its great! A great refresher that fits into any ICU for the new nurse or a refresher for the rest of us! Keep up the good work!

erinnRN said:
Hi! I will be starting as a new ICU nurse the beginning of May. I have come from a Transitional ICU but we did not get Swans, alot of drips and CVVH....I was wondering about a good ICU book -- nursing or whatever.

oh, and any other advice for me!

thanks,

Erin

Kathy White! Also available in PDA format.

MarkHammerschmidt said:
May I humbly recommend my series of free articles at http://www.icufaqs.org ?

Just a funny anecdote. I'm starting in the MICU StepDown on Monday. New older nurse (40yo) and for some reason I lost my mind and accepted a job there. (Actually I'm excited, but scared out of my mind.) Needless to say, I immediately came to this board to see what was being said and what reference books might be recommended. Anyway, I say the MICU faqs and saved it to my favorites to check out later. Meanwhile I went to amazon and ordered a book. I just went to look at the MICU faqs and realized it was the same book I'd ordered. That's a great thing. Must mean I was really interested in it. Now I can hardly wait until it comes in the mail.

Just my little story. I let you know what I think after I get it!

Cindy

We use Critical Care Nursing: Diagnosis & Management (4th Ed.) in Albany NY

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