nicu = critical care?

dawngloves, BSN, RN · Dec 4, 2004

If I wanted to go to for my CRNA does NICU experience count as critical care...I know it is an ICU but is it adult ICU experience that is required? thanks in advance :)

No. it has to be in the field you are testing in.

mac23 · Dec 5, 2004

Check with the schools you're interested in. My sister worked only NICU and got into CRNA school just fine but I think it's harder to do.

remigirl · Dec 5, 2004

there's a girl in my program that only had NICU experience. It can be done, but you may want to find out which programs accept it. Good luck!

dawngloves, BSN, RN · Dec 5, 2004

Doh! I'm sorry, I thought you posted CCRN. Nevermind!

sparkyRN · Dec 5, 2004

I highly recommend time in an adult ICU or ER to improve your adult assessment skills. We NICU nurses are focused on a small segment of the healthcare population ( no pun intended!). There are so many disease processes and traumas we will never see due to our type of patients.

RN4NICU, LPN, LVN · Dec 12, 2004

I highly recommend time in an adult ICU or ER to improve your adult assessment skills. We NICU nurses are focused on a small segment of the healthcare population ( no pun intended!). There are so many disease processes and traumas we will never see due to our type of patients.

just a side note - most CRNA programs do not accept ER or flight experience as critical care either. Experience requirement varies greatly program to program. Some will accept almost any kind of experience, others - well, if you don't have 2+ years of adult CVICU experience, you may as well not even bother applying.

My own thoughts (as I have done both) - ICU is ICU. Dopamine is dopamine, and vents are vents. Adults -- on the whole -- have more vasoactive gtts than NICU, and more arrhythmias - but all that is so simple to learn, it is ridiculous to expect an experienced NICU nurse to "start over" and do 2+ years of adult ICU, IMO. Most schools disagree, however, which is why I opted against CRNA as a career option.