yes or no

Depends on:

Prior work experience
Stress tolerance
Good orientation program on the unit
Your own intelligence (if you did poor in patho it's a tough adjustment to not just being a pill pusher but actually using your brain)

Some other stuff I'm probably forgetting but those are biggies.

What do you think? What qualities do you think that a good ICU nurse has vs. a med surg nurse. Are you considering going directly into ICU from school? What skills do you possess that will help you to be successful in that endeavor?

Whether or not nurses can go straight to ICU from school is mostly determined by the management of that unit. They must be willing to provide that level of support to the newest members of their staff...because graduate nurses require a different level of supervision and support than do experienced nurses who are new to ICU. There must be in place an ICU team that is receptive to having inexperienced nurses join them...their ability to coach and support that person is essential to their success. So...if you think you can and want to do that...find an ICU that is willing to take the stroll with you...Good luck.

1) It depends on the new grad

2) Prior work experience in the hospital outside of clinical?

3) It greatly depends on the particular ICU and the culture of that unit. Is everybody so sick in that unit that nobody has time to help you or answer questions? Or is it a good mix of sick and slightly sick patients?

4) The orientation process and a supportive management team that will grow the new grad into a critical care nurse.

for me its not a yes or no, its a maybe. I am finishing up a critical care orientation to an icu and it is hard. There are a few new grads so its possible but its a little harder for them since they are trying to figure out how to be a nurse and all the craziness that comes from being new. That being said, it is very possible and many people in my unit started out as new grads.

Jnw8606,
I think one of the main requirements to become a good ICU nurse is common sense. From reading your posts, I have a good feeling about you...Go for it!!

Of course. Get them while they are new and before they have learned lots of bad habits working the floor. Assuming of course your hospital has a good training program for new grads.

I'm a new grad in the surgical trauma burn icu and i don't think i bit off more than i can chew...it's awesome. that being said, i definitely take advantage of my preceptors every single day while i'm still on orientation b/c they are SO smart, it's unreal. if you want to constantly learn and like putting pieces of the puzzle together, you'll be fine (probably).

ps. i have 1.5 months of orientation left of 6, so i guess i'm on one of those units highly receptive to new grads (:

It depends on the nurse and also on the unit and the hospital's training program. I don't think my hospital's critical care training program was any great shakes, but my unit was friendly and supportive, and I've always been a quick learner.

Now that I have more contact with the med-surg nurses in my hospital, I'm not so sure that a year of med-surg would have helped me all that much. Those nurses are so BUSY that there isn't much time to delve into the condition of any one of their many patients. From what I see, they are forced to run from task to task to task. I used to wish that I'd done a year of med-surg first, but now I'm happy that I did not. The first year was much harder for me than for those who did have med-surg experience, but now I feel just as competent as any of the ex-med-surg nurses who were hired into ICU at the same time as I was.