Resume Help

[gatornursejor]

Hi! I will be graduating with my BSN this May. I am very interested in getting hired into a hospital that accepts new grads into an ICU. I was wondering what kind of "buzz words" or things do nurse managers look for in resumes when hiring a nurse into the ICU. I have been a PCT for a year while being in nursing school. I float around the hospital to all floors and have working in MICU and SICU floors several times. These are my favorite floors to work on. In my nursing school clinical experiences, I have had the opportunity to visit the MICU one time. I am currently in doing 16 hours a week in a bone marrow transplant IMC unit. Here our patient ratio are one nurse to 2-3 patients. I just really love being able to focus my energy in providing care to fewer patients because I can give quality care and make good connections with my patients and their families. I passed my HESI exit exam with a 930 and am hoping to land my transition practicum in an ICU to gain more experience.

I know that a lot of nurses recomend working on a med-surg floor for 6 months to a year before switching to an ICU, but I do not feel challenged enough on med-surg. I like critically thinking, analyzing CBC's and BMP's to figure out my patient's status. I feel that that is not done as much on med-surg floors.

Any help and advice you all can give me would be great! I really want to become a critical care nurse.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

thread moved for best response

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

I'd say the best thing you can do is to just totally ace your senior transition practicum in critical care, get letters of reference from them, and do a great interview. Join the local chapter of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, attend their educational offerings, network; go to their national teaching institute in the spring! ( http://www.aacn.org/DM/NTI/NTIHome.aspx?selnti=NTI2014&menu=NTI2014) Even if you aren't out of school yet, even if you don't have a critical-care job yet, this is a great way to get your feet wet.

The second best thing you can do is allow yourself to consider the possibility that you might just have to hone your overall skills for a greater or lesser amount of time before a critical care unit will hire you, and ace that. Ask to be floated to the ICU if they need somebody prn, stop by and engage the staff there in conversation after work, get known.