ICU, Pros Cons, What to expect?

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I got a private message asking me if I want to know more about ICU and I do! But this site won't allow me to pm yet! Here was my 'would be' response:

Yes! I am going to start Nursing School in the fall and our instructors said it is really important to start figuring out what departments/areas/specialties we are interested in.

My program only allows the top students to do rotations for ICU, Med Surg, and ED.

I'm a single mom and I'm really worried being so will hinder my ability to be successful in ICU/ED.

What are the Pros and Cons?

What type of character do you need to have to work ICU?

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.

I will respectfully disagree with your instructors. Nursing education in the US is generalized, rather than specialized. You don't have to choose. And those of us who went thru school planning to work in one area, often changed our minds after clinical experiences.

You have enough on your mind, preparing for nursing school. No need to add any more stress or worry about where you will work in a few years.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

Moved to the Critical Care Nursing forum.

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Focus on doing one step at a time, work hard at your studies and appreciate each clinical placement as they occur. Pre-planning details such as; which speciality area and which shifts you will work before starting nursing school, is akin to planning the details of your wedding before having a first date.

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Respectfully, I know I may change my mind, but this is a forum to learn and vent. I would like to learn about the ICU.

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Specializes in ICU.

You need to experience the things for yourself, people telling you what it's like isn't going to help. And you never know what you'll fall in love with. I wanted to be a NICU nurse, when I was younger my cousin was in the NICU-- with a happy ending. I saw kittens and rainbows and wanted to work NICU. Then I took a tour of a NICU through a pre-nursing club at my University, I took one look at a micropreemie and realized there was NO was NICU was for me.

I then thought I wanted to be a mom/baby nurse. I mean, you get to hang out with babies all day? Awesome, right?! So when I signed up to volunteer at a local hospital and was offered mom/baby I was stoked. Being exposed to there made me realize it's not all that it's cracked up to be and I decided it wasn't for me.

I love medical reality shows and thought that ER nursing was for me. I went all through nursing school thinking I wanted to be an ER nurse. I COULDN'T WAIT til I got to do my ER rotation in clinical. It was great and I liked it, but the TV shows show you like all the cool stuff and just a hint of the day-to-day not so cool stuff that is reality.

I still liked ER, but my program doesn't prefer ER preceptorships because past students spent more time shadowing than actually practicing the role of the nurse. I once had a nurse tell me to get ICU experience before going to the ED, so I requested an ICU preceptorship and was lucky enough to land a spot. In those 8 weeks, I completely fell in love with the ICU. The complex physiology and drips and actually getting to know your patient inside and out and there's always an opportunity to learn (not that there isn't opportunities in other specialties) and ahhh, I left there real starry eyed. I was lucky enough to land a job as a new grad in that ICU and I absolutely love it and have absolutely no interest in the ER for the time being.

So long story short, you have to experience it. You can't just hear what something is like and make a decision. If I made my decision before nursing school I'd be a NICU nurse scared out of my mind at the itty bitty babies lol.

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But if you look at my original question I'm asking about the ICU. I never said I agree with my instructors. I never said I'm dead set on ICU. I just wanted to know about others experiences. I'm just curious what people feel are its pros and cons.

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Pros for me: I really enjoy sick patients and knowing in depth their illness, lab values, having to critically think on my feet constantly. I prefer controlled chaos to the ED environment--worked 6 months in the ED and just kept that job per diem and went back to the ICU until CRNA school. I'm the kind of person that would rather know in depth every little detail about 2 patients than less info about 5 patients on med/surg (I don't know how people manage 5+ patients--I applaud y'all!)

Cons: these patients can be REALLY sick. I cried a lot after my shifts due to empathy I felt for the families who just lost a loved one, sometimes suddenly. Sometimes the pressure is really high, more than I imagined.

Good luck, I have faith you'll figure out your specialty while in school (I know I did, I went into school thinking I wanted to work in a nursing home but fell in love with critical care).

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Pros for me: I really enjoy sick patients and knowing in depth their illness, lab values, having to critically think on my feet constantly. I prefer controlled chaos to the ED environment--worked 6 months in the ED and just kept that job per diem and went back to the ICU until CRNA school. I'm the kind of person that would rather know in depth every little detail about 2 patients than less info about 5 patients on med/surg (I don't know how people manage 5+ patients--I applaud y'all!)

Cons: these patients can be REALLY sick. I cried a lot after my shifts due to empathy I felt for the families who just lost a loved one, sometimes suddenly. Sometimes the pressure is really high, more than I imagined.

Good luck, I have faith you'll figure out your specialty while in school (I know I did, I went into school thinking I wanted to work in a nursing home but fell in love with critical care).

thank you! This is the kind of feedback I was looking for! Thank you for sharing!

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Specializes in Public Health, TB.

Another con to ICU care: a lot of futile care is delivered to patients who have no chance of survival, but families want everything done. 90 year olds on ventilators, continual dialysis, feeding tubes, and enough vasopressors to cause tissue necrosis.

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Only the top students can do med surg rotations?

I get only a few can do ICU, ED....

I like my critical care Rotation, you get to learn in depth about your patient. I got to do a lot of problem solving.

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Only the top students can do med surg rotations?

I get only a few can do ICU, ED....

I like my critical care Rotation, you get to learn in depth about your patient. I got to do a lot of problem solving.

not that Med Surg is easy or doesn't hold prestige but I was also surprised by this. Perhaps it is because SO many want to try it out?

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