Is Progressive care unit considered critical care?

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I am a new grad and just accepted position at progressive care unit. Initially I was hoping to get a position at ICU but unfortunately after a couple months of applying and interviewing didn’t get an offer so decided to accept position at progressive care unit ( some places call it intermediate care unit I think). My long term goal is to transfer to ICU in a year or so.

My question is - am I gonna be able to get my CCRN certification after a year on PRogressive Care Unit?

Thank you in advance!

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Specializes in Adult and pediatric emergency and critical care.

The CCRN exam is really written for the care of critically ill patients. It will be very difficult to pass the exam without that experience. I took the adult CCRN exam with only pre hospital and ED experience, and I barely passed. Without having taken care of many ICU status patients I wouldn't have had the knowledge to come close to passing.

AACN does have a certification for progressive care nurses, this would be a lot more relevant for you. Whether or not it would really help you get into an ICU is probably up for debate, but one to two years of good step down experience will absolutely help you to get an ICU job. I think that it would look pretentious to have your CCRN after only having step down experience and could hurt your application to an ICU.

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On 1/23/2019 at 9:35 PM, PeakRN said:

The CCRN exam is really written for the care of critically ill patients. It will be very difficult to pass the exam without that experience. I took the adult CCRN exam with only pre hospital and ED experience, and I barely passed. Without having taken care of many ICU status patients I wouldn't have had the knowledge to come close to passing.

AACN does have a certification for progressive care nurses, this would be a lot more relevant for you. Whether or not it would really help you get into an ICU is probably up for debate, but one to two years of good step down experience will absolutely help you to get an ICU job. I think that it would look pretentious to have your CCRN after only having step down experience and could hurt your application to an ICU.

Thank you for the reply!

I just thought that by studying for this certification it would better prepare me for an ICU position and put me ahead of those who don’t have CCRN... ??

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Hi There!

I was in the same boat as you but ultimately was able to nab a CTICU new grad position, but I initially interviewed for and was offered similar PCU/IMC jobs. The good news is, more and more hospitals still consider this "Critical care" because they have nowhere else to put these patients who are in that "in between" area of acuity, and you will see a TON of different diseases, patients, pathologies, etc. (I was a IMC tech at one point and couldn't believe the types of patients we got ... it was insane). Many nurses I worked with on that unit transferred into ICU after 1-2 years without a problem, and you will definitely have a leg up on med-surg/floor staff just because they don't see the same acuity you will. You will also get good tele experience as most IMC patients require being on tele, and will become super proficient in reading EKGs.

Re: certifications ... You should definitely get ACLS (in fact, I'm pretty sure it's required as an IMC nurse since you are technically critical care). But I asked the same question to the manager who interviewed me about CCRN, and apparently there is a PCN certification for IMC/stepdown nurses... Maybe look into/start with that, because it still shows that you care about getting those certs no matter what. ICU managers know you likely won't have your CCRN as a transfer because you aren't seeing those patients.

Best of luck from one new grad to another!

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Thank you so much!!

It is very helpful!!

I will look into certifications I can get while I'm progressive care unit.

Are you at the IMCU now?

How do you like it?

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On 1/26/2019 at 11:10 AM, chudo161 said:

Thank you so much!!

It is very helpful!!

I will look into certifications I can get while I'm progressive care unit.

Are you at the IMCU now?

How do you like it?

I'm not currently in the IMC ... I left IMC to be a tech in a level I trauma ED because techs got to do a lot more in the ED, then I moved states and worked for a cardiologist before finding out I got into the ABSN program and started that full time. But you will have a very rich learning experience in the IMC, and it's a perfect segway into ICU. You will also still likely get to run some cool IV drip meds in the IMC ... patients had tracheostomies and PCA pumps, a lot going on ... our nurses ran Diltiazem drips among others. The other up-side is that you will still have relatively low patient ratios (1:3 typically) so you'll be able to learn and absorb a ton of info instead of feeling like a waitress with 7-10 patients on the floor. One of the nurses I used to work with in the IMC as a new grad is a very successful CTICU nurse now ... you are well on your way into ICU! Form a good relationship with your educator/manager and learn as much as you can. They are often super helpful in prepping/transitioning you into ICU as the IMC and ICU are closely connected (sometimes they even share the same unit educator).

And correction: the certification is PCCN:

https://www.aacn.org/certification/get-certified/pccn-adult

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