Intensive Care Nursing Role

[pjsrav]

Hey guys,

I'm an ICU nurse with 10 yrs experience. I worked in Portugal and, at the moment, my currente job is in London-UK. Although the nursing role has some transversal practices/principles, my experience tells me that the way of achieving the high standards of nursing may change according to the country.

I have plans to move to California until the end of this year and I'll be working in ICU. Obviously, I know that every ICU is different and each place has is own routines, protocols and policies but if someone could be kind enough to enlighten me about the generic role of a bedside nurse in the ICU in the US it woul be grand.

Thanks

[Okami_CCRN, BSN, RN]

We manage ventilators in collaboration with a respiratory therapist, if I receive new ventilator changes I make them aware and will change change simple stuff like an increase of FiO2 or increase in rate, anything else I call them, some get territorial about ventilators.

[KarenMS]

Well you probably should have stated that in your original post. Plenty of foreign nurses thinking they are just waltzing in the USA.

.

Why should he/she have stated that? It's completely extraneous information for what her question actually was. Even if she didn't have her license yet, the original question could still be answered.

[AceOfHearts<3]

I work in a large level 2 trauma center. The flow of my shift is pretty much the same as Okami's. Like others have said we have respiratory therapists that manage all the vent settings. If a patient is on a vent we have to have an RT with us any time we transport the patient anywhere in the hospital (to testing, procedures, etc.). The RTs have a schedule for when they are supposed to suction the pt, provide oral care, rotate the position of the ETT. Nurses are also responsible for suctioning and providing oral care. The RTs are responsible for extubating the patient, but I am always there when they do so.

In my ICU pretty much everything is electronic except for a couple procedure sheets. Our vitals flow automatically into an electronic flow sheet. Typical vitals are in it as well as art line readings, CVPs, etc. I had a patient the other day with 2 a-lines and it recorded both. There are some very specific things that don't flow over and we have to manually put in- hourly readings for IABPs, vigileo, CRRT.

In my ICU nurses are responsible for collecting labs. I'm responsible for making sure my patient is turned and repositioned appropriately. My large ICU only has a couple of aides to assist nurses, but it's normally not a problem. The aides are also trained in how to perform EKGs and will complete them when asked.