How to get into ICU?

[alli.]

Hi fellow nurses,

Do any of you have any tips on working in an ICU setting with not a lot of experience?

Here's my story,

I completed my preceptorship in the ICU and took a job offer as a charge nurse in an intermediate care unit. I had connections with the director of nursing and therefore started working there for 6 months. I quit for many reasons with one of them being too much to handle (4 patients total care with and additional patient every now and then along with being a charge nurse). It was in my best interest to leave before I would make a big mistake with one of my patients one day.

I took a job as a research nurse and have been working there for 6 months but to my dissatisfaction, I think I miss the hospital setting and more so, taking care of critically ill patients. I consider myself an adrenaline junky where I strive in an intense and intellectually challenging environment. I understand that most people think it's better to gain at least 1 year of experience in the floors but I'm looking to pass that, and have a chance at an ICU setting.

Overall, do you guys have any tips or know of any hospital where they would consider hiring an inexperienced nurse for their ICU? Fellowships would be ideal since I would get training. Learning on the job would be a challenge, but I'm positive I could still become a well rounded ICU nurse. I'm looking to find that career anywhere here in the U.S as I'm also looking to move out of state.

Any tips fellow nurses?

[alli.]

A lot depends on your particular job market and the preferences of HR and your manager.

If you don't have the right keywords like "BSN" in your application, the HR computer will filter your application out like it never existed, or so I am told. Read the job descriptions.

I got my position from med-surg to ICU because in the early 2000's the job market was in the favor of the nurses. ADN, no ICU experience, no problem? When can you start? I would never get hired in my department today with my ADN.

Is there anything really wrong with your job now? Why ICU? There really isn't much difference between ICU and stepdown units.

Be sure that ICU is what you really want before you give up a research job.

Thank you RNperdiem for your post. I don't plan to leave my work for a while actually. When I precepted in the ICU, I did extremely well which is where I was given the role that I had. Research is really great but it's not anything compared to how successful and far more happier I was in ICU which is why I'm considering the job options after I've had about a year or so working at my current job. Thanks for the advice!

[alli.]

Exactly. Sometimes the only difference between an ICU patient and one on my unit is that they had to make room in the ICU for someone else- and I've had ICU level patients on my unit solely because the ICU didn't have any extra beds to spare.

Please refer to the response of that quote you referred to. You are absolutely right about the differences. We experienced the exact same thing and the more ICU patients we had coming, the more I had to take the less acute patients in ICU and assign them to either myself or a fellow nurse here at the intermediate care unit. There came multiple times where I or another nurse were taking 2 admits at once (5 patients total) I struggled to fight against this as well as constantly showing administration the need for aids to help with showers, meals, bathroom assistance etc. You must understand that we were occasionally given 5 patients all of which were step-down status along with total cares. This was too much for the nurses as well as myself which on top of that, I was in charge of an entire unit. If this seems like something that still seems reasonable, safe, and do-able then I can't change your thought process but find a nurse that will stick around for longer than a year which wasn't the case for us and understably so.

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

Just about ANY acute care position will get you a closer look than working in research. I would advise applying everywhere, getting into acute care again and continuing to apply yourself toward your ICU goals, including advancing your education. Best of luck.