Pediatric Cardiac ICU

HyperSaurus, RN, BSN · Mar 8, 2010

I don't know, but I've recently begun to consider pediatric ICU rather than adult ICU. Let me know how it goes and good luck on your interview. Just be calm and confident.

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Mar 8, 2010

I've moved your thread to the PICU forum. Congratulations on your interview. There are a few threads on this forum that talk about the interview. Some are stuck to the top fo the forum home page, like How to Prepare for that First PICU Position and advice requested= track to PICU then there's Peds CVICU and https://allnurses.com/picu-nursing-pediatric/new-nurse-interview-393653.html#post3642693.

My unit is a med-surg PICU that primarily cares for CV surgical patients. My advice for your interview would be to review the most common cardiac anomalies (hypoplastic left heart syndrome, transposition of the great arteries, atrioventricular septal defect, tetralogy of Fallot, atrial septal defect and ventricular septal defect would be a good enough list) so that you know a bit about how they affect circulation. Don't try to memorize the information, but see that you understand it. Read about the different repairs and make a mental note of the common post-operative concerns (hypotension, hypoxia, acidosis, dysrhythmia, acute kidney injury, bleeding, pain control) and have some idea of how they're treated. You don't have to know it all, but if you can show that you've made the effort to learn a bit about what you'd be doing on the job, you're that much farther ahead. You might want to think about how you'd interact with parents and siblings because family-centered care is a really important component of the PCVICU mindset. Don't rush your answers and don't be afraid to admit that you just don't know something. They know you don't have experience in this area and they aren't going to expect you to be an expert at pediatric cardiac care. Don't be intimidated by the panel aspect. I think it might be easier to impress a group than a single person. With a single interviewer you only have the one opinion and there isn't any discussion about things they may have missed or biases they may not even realize they have. Other people's opinions can be very persuasive. And finally, when the interview is over, please come back here and let us know how it went. Best wishes...

BSNstudent107 · Mar 8, 2010

Thank you so much! That was very helpful and reassuring. It not only is my first cardiac ICU experience it is my first nursing job!! So the interview is intimidating but you are right, I can not know it all, I can just show them I am interested and will put the effort in by going in there with some understanding.

Thank you again!! I will be sure to update you!

Debbie

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Mar 8, 2010

Our unit has hired a lot of new grads in the last few years, so it can be done! If they didn't see something in your application that caught their attention, you wouldn't be worrying about an interview, trust me. They have a 6 month orientation period (ours is only 4 months, which I don't think is enough) so they recognize the need for preparing their new staff for the job, and that tells me that they will look favorably on you if you can show them you've at least done some homework. They're going to be expecting some nerves... so if you can find a balance between your nerves and your confidence, you'll do fine. If you can see it you can be it.