Er nurse vs icu nurse

[Mshealthness]

How would you describe the experience being a nurse at ER versus being a nurse at ICU?. I know that they are both critical areas but I just want to know how nurses in this areas respond to toxic duties.

[PMFB-RN, RN]

All nurses have stressful jobs except maybe the retired nurses.

Stress is part of having a heavy load of life-and-death responsibility and dealing with the public(who are not at their best).

ER has more unpredictability and variability. Your patients might be young or old, not really sick or at death's door. Nurses who do well here are able to deal with constant change and unpredictability and dislike routine.

Patients come to ICU with a diagnosis, scans and a couple of IVs. Life here is more routine. You will get 1 or 2 patients. First assessments, then meds, then talk about plan of care with the doctors on rounds, 1000 turn, 1200 turn, suction...

If you like a certain amount of routine, quick access to the doctors and a more intense focus on 1 or 2 patients, then ICU is a nice place to work.

*** I agree except the part about quick access to the doctors. There is always a provider in the ER. Some ICUs do not have quick access to a doctor. Where I work the resident who covers ICU also covers trauma and emergency surgery so sometimes there is no possible way, short of calling a code, of getting a physician at the bedside in less than an hour or so. I find more autonomy in ICU than ER, however YMMV.

[Mshealthness]

The main difference between ER nurses and ICU nurses.....ER nurses walk faster

this is so true! I never thought of that.

[CrufflerJJ, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

ER = ADHD

ICU = OCD

...snip...

I LOVE your ADHD/OCD contrast. I've not done ER (but did volunteer in EMS x 19 years), and can see how the ER might be a triage/stabilize/move-'em-out environment, vs the ICU "What??? You don't know when your pt's last BM occurred" environment.

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

"Toxic" is relative to the beliefs/perceptions & preferences of the person involved. Some of us thrive on high-intensity environments... so a rehab unit could be toxic for us. Some of us need to have time for emotional connections with our patients... ED or ICU would be toxic but Hospice would nourish our souls. Over time, your own career needs will change as will your preferred work environment.

[PMFB-RN, RN]

I LOVE your ADHD/OCD contrast. I've not done ER (but did volunteer in EMS x 19 years), and can see how the ER might be a triage/stabilize/move-'em-out environment, vs the ICU "What??? You don't know when your pt's last BM occurred" environment.

*** I am going to assume from that comment that in addition to never having done ER, you have also never done ICU.