Experienced floor nurse seeks ICU

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Specializes in Transplant, LVAD, cardiac.

Let me start by saying I've never wanted to be a floor nurse, and I've rarely enjoyed my jobs. I have had three in two and a half years. I left the first one for a day position, and the second because of the awful environment. My current job was at first challenging and fun. It's been a year, and I feel almost burned out. I'm just going through motions. I also would like to mention that I was lied to about the acuity and ratios on my floor. I was told IMU with max 4:1. We have 5 more often than not, and I recently had a patient with "foot pain" as their admitting diagnosis.

I started nursing school to be a midwife, but realized I hated women's health (and OBGYNs). I loved loved loved the CVICU. It has been my dream job ever since. I want to take care of the sick people. I also really like the adrenaline of crashing patients. I will try my darnedest to be involved if there is a patient going down on my floor. I don't quite have it down yet because it's just not that common. I realize ICUs aren't constantly coding, too. I want to focus on one or two patients, and actually know what's going on with them. Currently, I get mixed up which patient had the Cr that was uptrending because I've checked five sets of labs and read five sets of notes.

I think I'm a good nurse with good instincts. I'm not afraid to ask for help when I need it. I don't stress out easily, but I have been becoming quicker to anger when I have to take three admissions in four hours. I don't act out, but my insides are boiling. My floor involves a lot of tasks, so I have excellent time management skills.

I kinda want to do CRNA because I totally think it would be cool to show up in an emergency and intubate someone, but I'd hate standing around in the OR. I also love the ACNPs on my floor, so their job is appealing. I think the cath lab sounds awesome. You need ICU for all of this. Though I may score a cath lab interview because my hospital drove away all the nurses.

Now that you know my favorite color, here is my question: is it okay to say, I want to work in ICU (or the cath lab) because I'm an adrenaline junkie and I want to take care of fewer but sicker patients? I try to stick go moving up in my career, this is the next step... Can I just say the floor is not satisfying?

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Now that you know my favorite color, here is my question: is it okay to say, I want to work in ICU (or the cath lab) because I'm an adrenaline junkie and I want to take care of fewer but sicker patients? I try to stick go moving up in my career, this is the next step... Can I just say the floor is not satisfying?

I would not say any of the words you mentioned above! It makes you seem that you are not mature enough to manage critically ill patients or work in an area that is specialized.

I would say that you are ready to further develop as a nurse and that you are interested in working in a challenging environment like critical care or the cath lab.

Just my opinion.....

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I've been told not to even mention becoming a CRNA. The manager knows you will just leave in 2 years. They would rather hire someone else who's willing to stay for the long run.

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Specializes in Transplant, LVAD, cardiac.

I haven't mentioned CRNA. I am not even sure that's something I would actually do in the end. I do have the problem with "where do you see yourself in five years?" I have no idea. My career has not turned out the way I would have liked or even imagined, so how on earth can I predict that or even think about it? "It depends on 100 variables" is my real answer, but I come up with some fake BS about wanting an MSN in education.

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Specializes in ICU.

I disagree about not saying you're an adrenalin junkie... just don't say it that particular way. When you are really excited with what you are talking about, it shows. With so many people burned out or at least no longer excited about coming into work, seeing real excitement about a job in your face might just be what lands you the job. I talk about how it feels to see that crazy low blood pressure, turn up a vasopressor, and instantly stop the patient from coding that moment... I usually get an answering smile in return, at least, or a "That's why I went into critical care, too." It is intensely satisfying to be able to see how my actions directly impact a patient's well being, and you see more of that quicker in ICU than just if you give a blood pressure pill to someone who is alert and oriented and walk away. I say that is a very important part of nursing but it is not satisfying to me.

I definitely wouldn't use that MSN in education for the five year question! I don't think that's any better than saying you want to go to CRNA school, and it's also not honest and the interviewer might pick up on you not being genuine. What exactly would you do with a MSN in education at the bedside? It would be a waste - if someone told me that, I'd be thinking they wanted to leave to teach nursing school, or they wanted to leave their present position to be a nurse educator somewhere. I don't think it shows that you want to stay at that job. If anything, re-hash what you told us without mentioning going to another job - "Well, I really love taking care of critically ill patients and I have no plans to quit doing that anytime soon." It's honest, and it's also ambiguous enough that they could interpret it as you wanting to stay a bedside ICU nurse if they wanted to. That couldn't hurt.

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Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.

Is it possible that you're conveying negativity about floor nursing in your interviews? If so, that doesn't look good.

Years back in my pre-nursing days, we were auditioning for college choirs. A classmate of mine was trying out for Choir A and Choir B, but she really wanted A because she didn't care for the director of B. She didn't think he was a rigorous enough leader. When singing for director A, he asked her which she preferred if she had the choice. She said something to the effect of, "Honestly, I want to be in A because I think Dr. Choir B Director lacks the same leadership as you do." She was placed in Choir B despite having a phenomenal voice (a vocal major studying to be a professional opera singer.)

Do you think you could be portraying floor nursing as similar to singing for Choir B?

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