Advice/Tips - Step-Down ICU/Intermediate-ICU

There is a thread here about how to prepare for an interview. It's in Nursung First Job Assistance forum, in career advice, or search for interview help. LOTS of tips in there!!' Good Luck!!! :)

Hi =)

I have a few questions dealing with an interview for a Step-Down ICU next week

I am a new grad, finished school in December, passed my boards and got my license last week. This will be the first interview with the Manager and Assistant Mgr. If things go well, there is the last interview which is Panel.

I am nervous to be honest and apart from studying common interview questions, be confident and myself.

I am not sure how else I should prepare for this. What are your thoughts, tips and advice? Should I review certain drips? Ventilatory Support? etc?

Thanks in advance

Different hospitals definition of step down and what pts go to step down vs ICU can be very different. At my hospital step down can take non titratable cardiac gtts. Only one of the 3 step down units we have does A-lines, and none of them are allowed to take vents or initiate c-pap/bi-pap. Whereas many others you hear about do allow vents. I would not review unless you know what acuity of pts this step down takes

As a new grad, they will not expect you to know about drips or ventilators. I think they usually are just trying to make sure you are willing to learn, so I would just emphasize that you are enthusiastic about learning. I would make sure to ask about their nurse patient ratios. As the previous poster mentioned, there is great variance in acuity of patients in different step-down units and also patient ratios for such units. Good Luck!

No one really expects the new grad to know anything about drips, ventilators and such. What the interview is about is making sure that you're going to be someone we can/want to work with. We can teach you how to be a nurse. Focus on learning what you want to know about the unit, about the orientation process, about scheduling and whatever else is important to you. And try to project a calm, friendly vibe. We're looking for someone who is going to be trainable, someone who will be reliable about showing up for work and who won't have numerous conflicts with other employees. So relax and show everyone how lovely you're going to be to work with!

duplicate thread merged.