Picu Nurses Help!

[rb04cj]

Hello, my name is Becky, I am a fourth year student accepted in a PICU for my pre-grad experience. I haven't started my pre-grad placement yet, so I don't know tons about PICU. A nurse manager of a PICU is contacting me this week for a telephone interview. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what makes a good PICU nurse? What kinds of attribues does a PICU nurse require? Any suggestions would be helpful, thanks!

[NotReady4PrimeTime, RN]

First you need to love kids.

Then you need to "know" kids. They aren't just little adults. Their airways are smaller and configured differently. They experience respiratory arrest first in about 95% of cases, and cardiac arrest follows. They react differently to drugs... sometimes they need very little compared to an adult and other times they need a TON to get the desired effect. They have a much larger body surface area compared to a grown-up and even a small volume fluid loss could be a big problem. There are lots of references you can check out to learn these differences.

You need to remember that the parent is your ultimate resource. They know that child better than any professional caregiver ever could. If you make them part of the team, everyone benefits.

You need to be able to multitask... holding a child's head on the bed to keep them intubated while drawing up your Ativan, doing your charting, or changing a diaper... and you need eyes in the back of your head... they only LOOK like they're sleeping!

But most of all you need to ask for help when you need it, and sometimes when you don't need it. The only stupid question is the one you don't ask.

Given the date on your post, I'm sure this is all too little too late, but maybe not. Best of luck.