New Job in Surgical Trauma ICU

[bw0712]

Hey gang,

I'm a male RN with a little less than one year experience on a telemetry unit in a small community hospital. Today I was offered and accepted a position within a surgical trauma ICU at a much larger hospital (about six times as large). This hospital is a level 2 trauma center just outside of a large city. I'm really excited about this opportunity. I always knew I wanted to be an ICU nurse. My goal is to put in approximately two years on this unit and then go to CRNA school. But it the mean time my focus is making this an affective transition and becoming a skilled ICU nurse. I'm expecting this to be a tough transition. I have never worked with any type of trauma patients before. I'm fully expecting to walk into this unit and feel like a new grad again, which isn't necessarily a bad thing I guess. Anybody got some tips for making this work? Thanks to all.

bw0712

[dah doh, BSN, RN]

Hopefully you will bring a few skills with you: priority setting, organization, assessments, charting, and communication to name a few things!

Nothing wrong with being the newbie! Keep an option mind...learn everything from everyone...have an opinion but don't be a know it all...bring your skills! Good Luck!