New Grad in ICU

[handersRN]

Hello!

I graduated from nursing school in December and took my NCLEX in February! I just accepted a nurse residency position in the ICU! I start in June. I have 1 year experience working in the ED as a nurse extern, so I am familiar with IV placements, POC lab draws, code blues, EKG, etc.

As a new grad, what are some things I can study or review before starting in the ICU in June?

Thank you!!

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Your role as a nurse will be different than your role as a tech. One thing to review is the ACLS manual. By EKG, do you mean you can do a 12 lead? Or do you mean interpreting the rhythms? If you're at all rusty on rhythms, get some practice in there. Make sure you know pacing -- failure to pace, failure to sense, failure to capture, etc.

OK, now that I've told you some things to study, my best advice is don't. Spend time with your friends, get your house in order, go to the movies and read some great books. Once you start, you're going to have a lot of studying to do. There will be classes and exams and homework. You will see things in the ICU that you didn't encounter in ER, and you'll need to go home and study them so you know what questions to ask the next day. You're going to be going home and looking things up quite a bit in your first year in the ICU. So enjoy yourself now.