ICU Internship Essay

26.2, BSN · Feb 25, 2015

This is what I have written so far

1. State your goals/reasons for pursuing a career in critical care or emergency care.

My goal is to challenge my critical thinking skills and knowledge. I want to be an active learner, critical thinker, and think outside the box.

My reasons for pursuing a career in critical care or emergency care are as follows: I work well under stressful conditions. I am also pretty good at showing compassion but emotionally detaching myself from the situation, which is a good combination for critical care. I love to know everything that's going on with my patient, and with the ratios on the floor that's just not possible. I like being able to help someone in their most desperate situation. I feel like the Physicians respect our input into the patients situation more then they do on the floor

2. List and describe the three most challenging aspects you see as a critical care or emergency care nurse.

Gaining respect from Physician and employees

Being new into the ICU/ED. I think the physicians and nurses will view me as completely useless because of my inexperience in critical care.

Having multiple drips at a time.

I have had two drips at a time without difficulty. It is going to be a challenge to manage and titrate multiple drips at a time.

Time Management

I have had 4 patients on a step down unit and was able to manage their multiple comorbidities well. I think the ICU is a different kind of time management to get used to. I also think the Emergency Care is a much more fast paced environment with quick assessment skills needed.

3. What do you see as the differences between your current role and your role in critical care or emergency care?

On my current Medical unit we are not allowed to do any cardiac drips or insulin drips. We are a remote telemetry unit, but if a patient goes into AFib with RVR we have to send them to another unit. I just feel limited on this unit. Report is not as detail oriented as I would like it to be. It seems as though a lot of orders are missed due to lack of time and being task oriented.

Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN · Mar 1, 2015

1) is pretty good for the most part. What I would change is first take out the negative floor comparisons. It might be true, but it could come across as disparaging. Maybe instead of

I love to know everything that's going on with my patient, and with the ratios on the floor that's just not possible.

say something like "I love to know everything that's going on with my patient, and the ICU environment is conducive to this."

Also, this

I feel like the Physicians respect our input into the patients situation more then they do on the floor

could come across as disparaging to the MDs (who might be the same ones you work w/ on the floor.) Maybe something like "I look forward to opportunities for enhanced working relationships with our physicians."

For 2), you don't want to leave them on negatives. Kind of like the "what's your biggest weakness" question; you don't want to say "I stink at time management," but rather "Time management is a challenge for me, and this is what I've done to overcome it."

this one

Gaining respect from Physician and employees
Being new into the ICU/ED. I think the physicians and nurses will view me as completely useless because of my inexperience in critical care.

sounds pretty self-loathing. I'd scrap this one, honestly, and think of another one.

For the multiple drips and time management ones, I'd frame it not so much as "this is going to be difficult," but "these are new challenges that I look forward to mastering."

For 3), again, don't bad-mouth current unit. Rather than feeling limited by your unit, you would like the new challenge of being the one to manage the Afib w/ RVR. And while I get it's difficult to accomplish everything in the med-surg environment, business or task-orientedness isn't an excuse for missing orders. So I'd just take that line out--you don't want to look like you make mistakes and then make excuses for them.

Good providence w/ your interview! I just saw this post, otherwise I would've responded sooner.