Holy Cow! What Now?

[qaqueen]

Hello All,

So I am freaking out a bit. I have been a telemetry nurse for 8 years. I work in a small hospital. I have been orienting to ICU for 4 weeks and have not had any ICU patients yet. We do PCU overflow, so I have been at work, but I have not seen anything new.

I am concerned that I will be transitioned off of orientation before I have a clue of how to handle ICU patients. I have lots of info to read, and while I feel I am an excellent independent learner, I still do not feel confident that reading about caring for an ICU pt will make me competent to actually do so.

Any suggestions for improving my skill level? So concerned that I will be off orientation and see something I do not know how to handle when everyone else is swamped.

Appreciate ANY suggestions.

[PaSSiNGaS, MSN]

You need to step up and be vocal. Tell them you want sick ICU patients and not the step down junk nobody else wants.

[qaqueen]

Problem is, there have been literally no ICU patients in the facility on most of the shifts I have worked .

[PaSSiNGaS, MSN]

I would suggest applying to a real ICU then. One where you will actually be trained as an ICU nurse.

Problem is, there have been literally no ICU patients in the facility on most of the shifts I have worked .

[qaqueen]

PaSSINGaS, I suspect that you are correct.

[LV3677]

How small is this hospital?

After working in a critical access hospital, I can tell you that the nurses who worked in the "ICU" at this particular hospital were more adept at handling PCU patients- certainly not true ICU patients, and that we did not see true ICU patients frequently.

If you are looking for ICU experience, consider a larger hospital. If you haven't been taking care of ICU patients yet then there's not a good chance that you're going to get the experience that you want any time soon.