Hey nurses - I work in a CT surgery ICU in a big teaching institution. Our surgeons do repairs for aquired heart disease and congenital heart disease, so our patients are both pediatric and adult, neonates to geriatrics, and the acuity is very high. The practice had always been to hire experienced ICU nurses only, but about 5 years ago we started to hire new grads. Our routine has been to orient new nurses to the adult population first, and to the pediatric population after proficiency in adult care has been demonstrated. For experienced nurses that could take a month, for new grads, it could take 2 years. The expectation is that eventually, any nurse will be able to provide care for any of our patients. We're running into problems. The 2 years it takes new grads to get to the peds orientation means less adult/peds nurses available to take care of the peds patients. One complication of this is that when we have new grads orienting, senior nurses are often not available to precept because they are needed to provide pediatric care. So, new people are precepting new people. Do any of you out there work in a mixed population unit? If so, how are you handling your orientation process?
Even in ICU's without mixed pops, are you hiring new grads and how is it working out? Grateful for any help- Denise
Those nurses who prefer not to have new grads in their ICU are NOT singling out you Bluesky so don't take it personal. Unless there is a dedicated internship program and sufficient staffing to support new grads, I'd wager most critical care nurses WOULD prefer working exclusively with seasoned, competent critical care nurses, because that is how we cope in today's understaffed facilities; we work together and count on each other. My current ICU has no time to support new grads, it isn't that we 'dislike' new grads. Its just not an optimal setup in THIS ICU. Try and understand that.
Those nurses who prefer not to have new grads in their ICU are NOT singling out you Bluesky so don't take it personal. Unless there is a dedicated internship program and sufficient staffing to support new grads, I'd wager most critical care nurses WOULD prefer working exclusively with seasoned, competent critical care nurses, because that is how we cope in today's understaffed facilities; we work together and count on each other. My current ICU has no time to support new grads, it isn't that we 'dislike' new grads. Its just not an optimal setup in THIS ICU. Try and understand that.
mattsmom81
4,516 Posts
Those nurses who prefer not to have new grads in their ICU are NOT singling out you Bluesky so don't take it personal. Unless there is a dedicated internship program and sufficient staffing to support new grads, I'd wager most critical care nurses WOULD prefer working exclusively with seasoned, competent critical care nurses, because that is how we cope in today's understaffed facilities; we work together and count on each other. My current ICU has no time to support new grads, it isn't that we 'dislike' new grads. Its just not an optimal setup in THIS ICU. Try and understand that.