How do you know if it's for you?

When I interviewed for my position in February, my manager asked me some very good questions and then explained after the interview what she was looking for. I have been a nurse since 1997, but my background is in pedi outpatient and I have stayed at home the last 4 years with my kids. The interview really solidified for me that ICU was a good fit for me.

The key points in the interview were:

1) Are you comfortable with autonomy? In the ICU, you are expected to titrate drips, pain meds, etc. You are obviously not going to get the sickest patients until you have been in the unit for 6 months to a year, but you need to be comfortable with the autonomy you will be given.

2) Are you detail oriented? My hospital has quit floating nurses to the med/surg floors because they spend way too much time assessing and taking care of each patient. The only areas we float to are the CSU (Cardiac Step Down) and PCU (Progressive Care). When we float to these areas, they only give us 2 patients (CSU is usually 1:3 and PCU is usually 1:4).

3) Do you like to learn and are you self-motivated in your learning? My manager let me know that it would be expected that I would spend an hour or two after each shift (or on a day off that week) working on my knowledge deficits. She said the learning curve would be very steep for 6 months and then become much easier.

4) Are you comfortable with being a strong advocate for your patients? I work in a suburban hospital where there are no docs in the hospital at night. There is always a CRNA or anesthesiologist in house for OB, emergent surgeries and codes, but we do not have any residents, nor do we have an in-house intensivist. So, if a patient is going bad at 0300, you must be able to call the doctor without hesitation. Also, these families are in crisis and you must realize that a big part of your job is helping them cope.

I hope this helps!!

very helpful indeed, thank you! those are exactly the sorts of things i was wondering about. although i did not understand how your question about being detail-oriented tied into float nurses, your information is very useful to me as a self-evaluation tool.

I will take a stab at what she meant with the float nurse thing. I think that they stopped floating ICU nurses to med-surg, because the ICU nurses tended to spend so much time assessing each patient, they probably had a rough time getting to 6-8 patients on the med-surg floor. I have never worked med-surg, so please if this is an inncorrect statement, please correct it. It seemed to me at least when I was a student that on the general floors we did a more focused assessment on a certain area or issue. In ICU assessments tend to be more thourough and encompass everything.

Reading this kinda sounds anti med surg. That is definately not the case. I could not do the job that they do, I have the ultimate respect for anyone that can take care of that many patients at one time.

I will take a stab at what she meant with the float nurse thing. I think that they stopped floating ICU nurses to med-surg, because the ICU nurses tended to spend so much time assessing each patient, they probably had a rough time getting to 6-8 patients on the med-surg floor. I have never worked med-surg, so please if this is an inncorrect statement, please correct it. It seemed to me at least when I was a student that on the general floors we did a more focused assessment on a certain area or issue. In ICU assessments tend to be more thourough and encompass everything.

i think you're right on about explaining that, now that i hear it in your words.

I will take a stab at what she meant with the float nurse thing. I think that they stopped floating ICU nurses to med-surg, because the ICU nurses tended to spend so much time assessing each patient, they probably had a rough time getting to 6-8 patients on the med-surg floor. I have never worked med-surg, so please if this is an inncorrect statement, please correct it. It seemed to me at least when I was a student that on the general floors we did a more focused assessment on a certain area or issue. In ICU assessments tend to be more thourough and encompass everything.

Reading this kinda sounds anti med surg. That is definately not the case. I could not do the job that they do, I have the ultimate respect for anyone that can take care of that many patients at one time.

This is what I meant by the float nurse thing. I too have the highest respect for med-surg nurses...I know that I could not do it.