Choosing a critical care job

Specialties Critical

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Hello all! So this summer I've had an amazing opportunity to be an extern in the ICU at Mayo in Arizona. I've always wanted to do ICU once licensed but I guess I have a question about choosing an ICU. Now I'd love to work at Mayo's ICU; however, I also may have the opportunity to work at a Trauma I ICU. Of course this is all very fluid, but it brought me to this question that maybe you all can help me with: is it better for your ICU career to work at a better quality institution with lower trauma status or a trauma I center? Which will allow you to find other ICU jobs in the future?

Thank you you all so much!

Smalltimore

13 Posts

My two cents as a new grad who recently started in critical care:

Go with the place that offers the best orientation/education and is the best cultural fit for you. I had to choose between two ICU positions, one at an amazing trauma center that i've always dreamed of working at, and one on a icu at an teaching hospital. I ended up choosing the second, even though it's not my ideal patient population. I did this because the management and staff all seem really happy to be there, the orientation is longer, and I talked to a bunch of nurses on the floor who started there as new grads who said they felt really well-supported. The other ICU would be an amazing place to work eventually, but I didn't feel like it was the right fit for me right now.

Plenty of nurses switch up the type of ICU they work in, so I don't think the type you start with will necessarily determine where you can work in the future. I'm more concerned with building a solid foundation and gaining confidence in my assessment, time management, and critical thinking skills.

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