I'm starting this topic for any new grads or new to the ICU. I think it will be good to come here to compare notes, encourage, vent and support each other. I am extremely nervous and excited at the same time.
My orientation will be 10-12 weeks and my main goal is to be a safe and competent nurse. I start out on nights which I'm kind of happy about since it will be a little slower paced and perhaps easier to learn.
That's awesome! I started in micu/sicu straight from school. It's fun! Just remember to ignore negative people or the jaded nurses no matter what. When I first started it was like a hazing process by the older icu nurses with unprofessional cursing and yelling. but, seriously at the end of the day, the impact u make on the patients is the best feeling in the world!
Hello everyone...really happy I stumbled across this post..I will be starting in the ICU, in McAllen, Tx, straight out nursing school...hope everyone is doing awesome at work.
Hey there!! Rough couple of weeks. Patients have been hard and emotionally draining. Keeping people in their bed is not my forte.
At work, they have been giving me progressively harder patients. Well some leads will, some leads will stick me with the ones people don't want. Such is life!
I like nights better than I did originally, but I still find it tough on the family.
Had my first unsuccessful code a few weeks ago, not my patient but I was there when she became unresponsive. I cried after I went home just from the stress of the night. My patients were crashing at the same time. I felt like the only thing I accomplished that day was keeping my patients warm and breathing.
My time management is fine, never had a tough time with that. Just feeling a little blue from the past few weeks.
Don't worry, I've been right there with ya. I was helping admit a friend's patient and the alarm kept going off saying it was V-Tach when it wasn't. So everyone kept asking me to silence it.
Finally, I silence it for the 10th time, and it was true V-Tach. =\ The physicians were in the room and caught it immediately right as I realized, so we saved the patient. Patient didn't last more than a day after that, though.
Sometimes there's not too much we can do, even if we are perfectionists :)
Has anyone else's unit census and acuity been low? I'm thankful I went through orientation in the fall/winter when things were crazy, but had the summer on my own to build my skills before heading into cold & flu season!
Hey all. This may not be the proper thread, and I'm sorry in advance if I offend anyone.
I've been an RN for almost a year now and eventually want to head to the ICU path. Does anyone know of any good ICU training programs (preferably in Northern California)? Thanks so much for your help!
Things are starting to pick up here, too, census and acuity-wise. The past weekend was crazy. Sunday, I had one very easy patient plus the code bed (we are the only ICU at our campus so we reserve a bed for codes.) My code bed stayed empty but many of our ICU patients were circling the drain. I spent my night running around helping to "put out fires" in between chatting with my own super sweet and talkative patient. I I love this job!
jeffreytrip
7 Posts
That's awesome! I started in micu/sicu straight from school. It's fun! Just remember to ignore negative people or the jaded nurses no matter what. When I first started it was like a hazing process by the older icu nurses with unprofessional cursing and yelling. but, seriously at the end of the day, the impact u make on the patients is the best feeling in the world!