Just got hired in ICU....any advice?

[nursekatie22]

i've been on a medsurg/tele unit (and floated to oncology as much as possible) for the past 14 months since i got out of school. i've accepted a position in the icu and now i'm just wondering if there's any advice any of the "old hands" can give me about how to cope at first.

i'm nervous about how different everything is in the unit (charting, monitoring, etc) and i know i'll have some things i have to change and do differently, but i'd like to get a leg up on things.

thanks!

[rn2bn07, BSN, RN]

No it isn't. It's learning, from experience, that dismissing and disregarding, or responding to, seemingly insignificant changes can mean the difference between life and death.

ICU nurses must go beyond the basics and zero in on the nuances that are often imperceptible to the uninitiated.

The basics come first. When nurses are comfortable with the basics and those basics are second nature then it is time to move on to critical care.

IMHO, of course. YMMV.

Wow! I worked on a tele floor for a year before becoming an ICU nurse and I tell ya, there is no "basic" there. I get a few patients in the ICU that are "basic" and shouldn't even be in the ICU, but the fellow wants him on a CVP monitor because his blood pressure drops when he's asleep. " Go figure". However, I will admit that critical care nursing keeps you constantly learning about the disease process and why things happen when they happen. Working on the floor, keeps your tasking, time management, and also critical thinking skills up to par. I work contingent now on the tele floor, and whenever I go to work I am thinking critically about every pt, just at a different pace.