med-surg RN desperately wanting into ICU

[megRNn]

As a new grad, I was hired onto a med-surg/tele floor where I have been the past 2 years. I live in southern California and the new grad job market down here is tough, so when I was offered a job in med-surg I took it, despite really wanting to be an ICU nurse. I figured in time I would be able to transfer once I had some experience. But the hospital I was working at basically did not make these opportunities available, despite several ICU supervisors telling me they had confidence in me and would like to have me in their ICU (union rules basically prevented transferring due to lack of seniority). For other reasons, I left that job and took a per diem job at a big university hospital where there is more opportunity for advancement. I am hoping to find a way to get hired into a new to speciality ICU position at this new hospital. What advice can you give me on enhancing my resume to accomplish this? Are there any certifications, classes I could take? I cant take CCRN because I don't have the experience obviously. But I am willing to do anything else. I want this so badly. I am so bored with the lack of challenge in med-surg and I know I definitely have the chops for ICU. Thanks for any advice

[SquishyRN, BSN, RN]

Try contacting the education department at your hospital about critical care courses. The large teaching hospital where I just started working allows nurses from other units to enroll in the facility's critical care course if spaces are available. Non-employees can even enroll, although the price is $500. The course is the didactic portion of the ICU nurses' orientation, so spaces are contingent on how many new ICU nurses are orienting. If your facility does not offer that, companies such as FlexEd and Key Medical offer 6-week critical care courses as well. The LTACH where I work is a small facility so it does not offer training programs. However, they allow interested Med-Surg nurses to cross-train into the ICU after completing such a course. They also reimburse the nurse for the cost of course which is around $300 for Key Medical and $500 for FlexEd. Ask your facility if they offer something like that if they don't offer critical care courses for non-ICU nurses. It will definitely show your commitment to becoming an ICU nurse. At the very least, you'll be getting CEUs out of it

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

You could get a CCRN book and study. Might help your knowledge base although you don't qualify to take the exam yet.

And whatever you do, please don't carry your mindset of boredom/lack of challenge w/ M/S into an interview...heck don't carry it at all. But I promise you it would not look good.

[wellcoachRN]

I encourage you to tap into your education department offerings. Start taking an EKG class then see if you can take ACLS. Lippincott has a lot of great easy to understand books on critical care nursing. Classes, CEUs and ACLS are great things to add to your resume.

Wishing you great success in become an ICU nurse!

[himilayaneyes]

Get your ACLS, take a critical care course. Volunteer to float to ICU all the time. Harass the ICU manager until they hire you. Good luck.

[NickiLaughs, ADN, BSN, RN]

Get a 12 lead ekg class and a cardiac/arrhythmia class if you can. I would look for nurse 1 programs for icu. Kaiser up here in the Sacramento area has a few openings for that at kaiser morse. Good luck.

[Trauma_drama14, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN, NP]

Yes, find out who the NM is for the ICU you want and harass them! Lol, I graduated last May and started off on a busy surgical patient care unit of a large hospital. I some how ended up running into the ANM for SICU and she gave me tips on trying to get my name out there. Luckily it worked too! I transferred a little after my one year and I'm finishing my first two weeks with my new unit tomorrow (and so excited, we get all the traumas and we're a level one trauma center too)

[megRNn]

Thanks for the tips everyone. Fortunately I just got hired in a Level 1 ED :) So ready for this fresh start!