Please advise

Sounds like at this point you just need to put it behind you and move on with your lessons learned.

Good luck.

Need to erase....

:)

OOPS some major spelling mistakes Sorry :monkeydance:

:)

:)

Not everyone is ICU material. ICU nurses must be detailed oriented, what slides by on med/surg floors doesn't fly in an ICU. It is tough but necessary. You are a new nurse and probably need more experience in another med/surg unit before considering further ICU experience. It seems so many young nurses just want 1 yr. in ICU so they can move on the anesthesia school, that is ok, but ICU is a constant challange, you will learn something new every shift. Try not to blame yourself or ICU nurses, just improve your skills and take one day at a time. It is hard when someone tells you that you are not good enough for the unit but for patient safety sake it might be necessary. You may be too inexperienced to realize that at this point since you are upset. Give yourself some time.

:)

I see where the other posters have a valid point of view.

However, I also know that ICU nurses can be vultures and they have a tendency to pick and peck to make sure they get the best of the best. (I'm an ICU nurse so I know how we are - don't get mad here!)

My questions are: where was your preceptor?, were you given ICU education such as an ICU course?, were you sent for certifications such as ACLS? were you sent for EKG classes?, etc.

You just may not have been involved with a good ICU. If you didn't get a good education than just explain that in your 7 month experience you didn't feel that you had been given enough education to protect your license or your patients and felt that a move to another facility was the smartest thing to do. Tell them that your learning style did not match the facility's teaching style, and you hoped a new facility would be more in line with the education you were looking for. Try to put a positive or at least neutral spin on it so that you're not labeled a problem child.

Med/Surg nursing is a totally different realm from ICU nursing. And some ICUs are more intense than others. Personally, if management had treated me with such disrepsect, then I'd have resigned as well. If you were practicing poorly then there should have been intervention prior to your coming off of orientation. I think that reflects poorly on management. Also were you evaluated by more than one staff member during your orientation? At my facility, to ensure a person's skills are up to snuff, they have to work with at least two different preceptors.

Now I don't know the whole story, but I do agree that you should chalk it up as a bad learning experience. Try to find the good lessons that you learned (like self-preservation). Look for a facility that supports ICU nurses with a good orientation program and lots of education. So, that's the best I can offer. Good luck!

:)

I will agree with MistyDawn that ICU nurses can be vultures. I went straight into ICU after nursing school (which I now think was a mistake FOR ME--maybe not for others, not judging). It has been rough. I quit the first job after 4 months due to many factors (manager promised day/pm rotation, and then put me on 4 nights a week--go figure! Had 15 preceptors, most of who were just obsessed that the chart had every box checked, as opposed to worrying abou the patient) Now I am in another ICU, and supposedly some of my coworkers are critical of my care (one said my patients looked "rumpled"). Manager could not give me specific examples, however. Never made a med error, patients are happy, etc.

So, I applied for a transfer to a med-surg floor, and all of a sudden, my ICU manager thinks I am just fine. She wants to talk now and have me reconsider, etc. etc.

I think the point is that some ICUs have nurses who are horribly picky, and until you have 10 years of ICU experience and dot every i on the chart, you will not be respected.

I would definitely say to other ICUs you are interviewing with, as previous poster did, that the orientation was not sufficient, and you are looking for a better fit, or something like that.

Good luck!

Oldiebutgoodie