New MICU Nurse

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I'm a new grad working in the Medical ICU and I wanted to see if anyone had any recommendations on a good critical care nursing book that I can use to study. I find myself lost a lot of the times and I know I will learn with experience but I want to be able to know what to do when something goes wrong or what I should be looking for and so on. So I'm open to suggestions. Thanks in advance!

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Moved to MICU forum

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Specializes in PACU.

I like Diepenbrock's Quick reference to critical care, which is exactly what the title says it is. Portable so you can use it at work and it seems to contain just the information I need when looking something up.

It's not the study book you're looking for, I know, but I can't help you with those (I use a Dutch book) :)

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Fast Facts for Critical Care was highly recommended to me and I use it almost everyday!

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Specializes in Cardiac/Transplant ICU, Critical Care.

Unfortunately I feel like experiencing things first hand is the only way to really know what to do when something goes wrong. I feel like you should be focused more on learning how to do things properly, when to ask for help, how to use all of the common devices that you will see on your unit, and how to prepare for procedures (intubation, central line, A line, balloon pump, EVD, EEG, etc). Knowing what to grab, how to set things up, grabbing appropriate supplies, and knowing what to expect is a huge part of being a competent and effect ICU RN.

I just made a video on ICU Nurse's roll in endotracheal intubation that might help!

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