youngNurse722

Honestly I am unsure of my career goals, but definitely want to go back to school. I enjoy research or maybe management. I wanted ICU because I truly have an interest and passion for nursing and wanted to learn more. I always enjoyed having sick patients on the floor. Also, once you have ICU experience you can get a job almost anywhere. I'm also not sure if it's just the ICU I work at that is making me hate it. The constant competitive personalities and everyone thinks they know everything. The floor I used to work on was like a family and a very close fun group to work around. So maybe that is more so what I am missing. But all are ICU's full of people with the serious, competitive personalities?

Yes I am glad someone agrees and I'm not alone in this. I also feel like I did way more critical thinking on the floor. I feel like on the floor you kind of are alone and have to push doctors. Where on ICU the doctors are there and making all the decisions and you are just completing tasks for them. and I agree with the assessment skills too, from working med surg you see 6 patients and automatically know which one just from looking at them from the door is going to be your sickest patient that shift, you don't have time to sit there and do thorough assessments every 4 hours on each patient, you just learn to assess from looking at them, vitals and knowing what's going on with the patient. I think ICU nurses who have never worked the floor would be surprised at how sick some of the patients are and all the work we do up there. So you did transfer to a different NICU and have a better experience there with the coworkers? Because I feel like I could enjoy ICU and I do want the experience for resume/schooling purposes, but I just can't stand being around those personalities all the time. The people you work with really do make a big difference.

I started my first nursing job on a med surg floor and worked there for 2 years, I absolutely loved it and enjoyed learning and wanted more experience so I moved to critical care. Now that I have been in critical care for 6 months, I don't think I enjoy it, it's not what I thought it would be and I felt more challenged on the floor. But I am having a hard time admitting to myself that I don't like it because I wanted it so bad....now I am lost at where to go in nursing and where my next job should be. Should I go back to med-surg? Maybe ER because it has the constant business of medsurg but also the critical care aspect, without all the grueling tedious stuff. Any advice is appreciated. I just don't know where to go from here. Also anyone leave a job after only 6 months? does it look bad or did you have a hard time finding a new job because of it?

I am going through the same thing right now! I started in med-surg and absolutely loved it for 2 years. I thought I wanted more and enjoyed when my patients were crumping so thought I would enjoy ICU. Now, I only worked in ICU for a little over 6 months, so I can't say I gave it a long enough chance, but I don't think I enjoy it. I am having a hard time admitting to myself that I don't like though, because I wanted it so bad. It really is overrated. It's absolutely grueling to me, unless you have a completely unstable crashing patient. Otherwise the tediousness and techy equipment (CRRT, balloon pumps etc) are just more tasks that ANYBODY can learn. It's completely different than i expected. I thought there would be constant adrenaline rushes and crashing patients. But most of the patients are stable - until they aren't. I've felt more adrenaline working on the floor having crashing patients with unstable BP's but no pressors to fix it, ect. In the ICU everything is right there, you can use pressors, vents, ect. I also completely agree with the intense work environment. The competitiveness and superiority complexes drive me insane. Constant passive-aggressive attitudes and being looked down on because I was a "floor nurse" when I myself and many of the experienced floor nurses I worked with know just as much if not more than these ICU nurses (especially the new ones). Yes ICU nurses can code a patient better than a floor nurse and know about prisma, balloon pumps, impella pumps, ecmo and all that....but it is stuff ANYBODY can learn. It is a lot of tasking to me. And the whole ICU nurses are better than everybody concept needs to go! We all are great and have different challenges. The med surg floor I worked on was like a family, we all got along, had fun and joked around. The ICU I work at is a lot of nurses who are all serious all the time and constantly have that competitive attitude. I think a big reason of why I hate the ICU so much is because of the work environment and people I work with. So I thought to myself about trying another ICU, but I think for the most part it is a general personality in ICU's and doubt it will be different anywhere I go.