ICU Charge nurse Vs. ICU floor nurse to become CRNA

Oceanpacific · Jun 4, 2015

I think you sort of set yourself up for the replies you are getting. The charge nurse position is not a good idea. Congratulations on getting the offers and I think CRNA is an exciting goal.

icuRNmaggie, BSN, RN · Jun 4, 2015

The idea of hiring someone who has been a nurse for less than 2 years, has 15 months of hospital experience, and "a little ICU" as an ICU charge nurse should not even be entertained by you or them.

It is like promoting a private to the rank of lieutenant in under 2 years.

They have an agenda, and it is surely not for the benefit of the patients or the staff.

You need to keep looking because this sounds like - as they say in the military - a cluster.

ETA: Your user name indicates that you intend to take the job. What will you do if your preceptor is barely competent too?

klone, MSN, RN · Jun 4, 2015

They have an agenda

And THERE you go. My thought from the beginning.

dirtyhippiegirl, BSN, RN · Jun 4, 2015

I, too, Iwould be more worried about working for a hospital that would offer an ICU charge position to a relatively new nurse with little ICU experience. What is turnover on the unit like? (Very high, I am assuming.) Is there a new manager who is cleaning house? The whole situation seems sketchy and setting you up for failure.

RyanCarolinaBoy, ADN, BSN, MSN · Jun 5, 2015

ICU RN here. Lets just say that we, in the ICU, do NOT need traditional leadership as a med surg unit might. We are competent team players, and need very little direction to complete our shift. If I was introduced to you as a charge nurse that had been a rn for 15 months with a little ICU experience, and then told that you were my new charge nurse, I would laugh til I cried. No thank you. For the love of god, you cannot help me with my fresh cabg tanking of you don't know one end of a swan from the other. Or how to help with my malfunctioning balloon pump or impella that is not working. The idea of a new nurse in ICU charge role is ludicrous. Please realize that you will get little to NO respect from the staff working with you. ICU nurses do not tend to put up with a lot of bullcrap. And we don't like the new pup on the block trying to act like he is in command. So If you want the crna experience, just be a floor nurse and do some learning first.

weirdscience · Jun 5, 2015

As someone who went from med/surg to ICU, after coming from a decent length (~15 years) career in another field...this is terrifying to me. Both the thought of my ICU charge not being a seasoned ICU C.O.B. *and* the thought of being in your shoes as a new ICU charge...terrifying.

Here are some things my ICU charge(s) have helped us with lately: stepping in to run a code on a pt whose pressure was tanking, and arguing with the MD that they were following the current ACLS algorithm (and being correct), getting security involved with a violent patient who was trying to bite staff and throw bodily fluids, coordinating helicopter transfers from rural areas when the patient was arriving on multiple life-support devices.

I know that's all worded weirdly but I'm trying to be vague, not violate HIPAA, and paint a picture for you. Unless you're fully jazzed and feel competent in taking on all of the above and more, I would take the staff position.

weirdscience · Jun 5, 2015

And even if you ARE jazzed, be prepared to get zero respect, like RyanCarolinaBoy said, from staff until you've earned it repeatedly, over a period of years. Not saying this is 100% warranted, but it is ICU.

Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN · Jun 5, 2015

@Pheebz777--Very true, but I'll add a thought. Our SICU and MICU charges go to codes everywhere in the hospital. Recently, our charge was the first member of the code team to arrive in a patient's room. She did not have to anticipate what the doctor would order because there was no doctor there yet. So guess who ran the code, at least until a physician arrived?

Now I work in a large teaching hospital. I suspect that in smaller hospitals, critical care nurses have even more responsibilities in codes than in a hospital which has a whole gaggle of residents showing up. Just another thing to consider if you're still thinking the charge nurse idea is a viable one.

ArrowRN, BSN, RN · Jun 16, 2015

Review CRNA requirements, it needs direct patient contact hours, meaning at the bedside. A charge nurse has a different role.

Been there,done that, ASN, RN · Jun 25, 2015

I do have a little ICU experience but not much. Charge nurse also has a lot to do with leadership which I have many years of which is why they offered it to me. Also have a charge experience on my current unit(we rotate charge duties). But the question has to do with getting into CRNA school and if it would help me out by doing floor or charge

So.. what I hear you saying is.. you really don't give a rat's patooty about learning in an a ICU or leading in an ICU.. only which position will aid you in your goal of getting into CRNA school.

That is reprehensible.

ArrowRN, BSN, RN · Jun 28, 2015

I don't think someone's ambition should be called reprehensible because they know what they want to do in life. Fact is CRNA has an ICU requirement, how else is this person to meet those requirements? Many nurses start in med-surg and dont give a ratspooty about that either, after year 1 new med-surg nurses flock to other fields. It's attitudes like this that always makes me suggest to others, never let your nurse managers know your true ambitions, especially not at interviews, not even when you on the floors don't tell your coworkers either...no matter how friendly they are...in other words OP don't go to an ICU interview telling them how much you want to be a CRNA, they'll figure you won't be around long and you'll never get the job.

Been there,done that, ASN, RN · Jun 29, 2015

I don't think someone's ambition should be called reprehensible because they know what they want to do in life. Fact is CRNA has an ICU requirement, how else is this person to meet those requirements? Many nurses start in med-surg and dont give a ratspooty about that either, after year 1 new med-surg nurses flock to other fields. It's attitudes like this that always makes me suggest to others, never let your nurse managers know your true ambitions, especially not at interviews, not even when you on the floors don't tell your coworkers either...no matter how friendly they are...in other words OP don't go to an ICU interview telling them how much you want to be a CRNA, they'll figure you won't be around long and you'll never get the job.

It's rat's patooty. Fact is leadership in ICU has an experience requirement.

I admire OP's career goals. Fact is.. they come in second to the needs of any staff and patients in an ICU.

I have worked in ICU. I expect the charge nurse to know as much.. and more than I do.

Charge nurse needs to be on top of the chaos. Able to jump in and assist in any ICU procedure, able to tell the ICU resident that their orders are incorrect. NOT sitting in an office, making out the schedule and planning their career moves.