New RN...help!!!

Published

Specializes in Surgical.

Hi, I am a recent graduate and have been working on a surgical unit for 4 months now. Im doing pretty well, my clinical skills are very good, and my judgement is on point. But i HATE my unit! I have up to 8 patients in a shift..and with discharges and admits, i may be charting on upwards of 12 patients. I personally don't think this is a safe environment to learn OR provide thorough patient care.

My real passion and are of interest is the ICU, whether it be medical/surgical/cardiac...whatever! What i want to know is...is it really hard to transition from a surgical or medical floor to the ICU? I want to have a year of experience before i find a new specialty..but im afraid ill be thrown to the wolves!!! Do all nurses hired to the ICU get a solid orientation and education, or is that kind of training limited to new grads??

Any advice would help lots!!! Thanks!!!

**Confused and Frustrated New Grad

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in critical care: trauma/oncology/burns.

Hello IrishRN84:

Welcome to Nursing! Wow, sure sounds like you are on one busy unit!

Listen, when I was a new graduate I wanted to go to the ICU to work, but the Head Nurse there told me to work the med/surg floor, pass my Boards then she would welcome me with open arms. And, that's what I did.

I think it depends upon the facility that you are working at. Is there any way that you can ask one or two of the current ICU nurses there what type of orientation they had to the unit? Find out their nurse/patient ratio. Are there more than one critical care unit in your hospital? Check them all out....Does your hospital have a mentoring or shadow program in place? Where you could go to the unit for a day or two and shadow a critical care nurse to observe what a "typical" day might entail?

You might also want to check out www.aacn.org perhaps even become a member.

Hey, listen, good luck in your decision!

athena

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in SICU.

In nursing school half my professors said I needed to do a year of med/surg and the other half said it wasn't necessary. I decided to compromise and did a year of step-down. If ICU is where your passion lies (and I understand, it's mine too) then go for it. After my year of step down, I ended up changing hospitals, but I did a full 3 month orientation on the ICU. Talk to the head nurse on the ICU you want to work on...also if you signed a contract for a certain amount of time on your floor, make sure that time can be carried over to the unit. Last thing you want is to be in breach of contract and owe money even though you're still working in the same hospital.

Good luck, ICU is the best! (but again, i'm a little biased ;-))

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in SICU.

I say go for it! Im a new grad in the SICU and I love it. One preceptor had a sink or swim method and the other was more nuturing. I hated the sink or swim preceptor, but I understand and appreciate it now. I started Set 2, 08 and been off orientation for two weeks now. Im very comfortable there are some things Im still not familiar with but I use my senior nurses as a resource person.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in SICU/CVICU.

it might just be me but....I get nervous when people just out of orientation say they feel comfortable. Everyother time you feel like you know exactly what's going on and become complacient there's a new twist thrown at you. Always stay on your toes or ur patients will die. :-) Just a friendly word of advice.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion