RNFELICITY

I work full time and I am an FNP student. I will tell you that if you have a family, a life, a job...it can be very demanding. However, I have found that using a calendar and putting every detail of my life on it that it keeps me on track and I can keep my life on schedule. It takes a lot of work and fortitude, but you can do it. Would it be easier if you did not work? Probably, but if you are not motivated to use those extra hours then it really doesn't matter...lol. I am a procrastinator some times and I have found that if I have "extra time' I use it to do other things...lol. Good luck!

I will be 47 going on 48 when I complete my NP. I don't think age is a factor in becoming whatever you want to be. If you hve the desire, GO FOR IT!!!!

BRAVO!!! You are so true. Different areas and sizes of hospitals see such a variety of cases. You really have to look at where you want to live, what you want to do, and look at each hospital and what they take care of. I know the ICU at my local hospital would truly be equivalent to a barely a step down in a larger hospital.

Cincinnati seems to be the place for new grads in a lot of the ICU especially in the Mercy system.

Thanks! I got my CCRN almost two years ago. Maybe I am just freaking out because I am anal...lol. I did not know if I needed to study more trauma stuff like an ER nurse from the ENA or not.

also, look at lab trends and vital signs trends and not just what happened today. Look at rhythm strips over the past few days. It is amazing hte subtle changes you can se that might be important.

Your alarms are your friends. Don't ever turn any of them off and set them to how you want them and whatever is specific to the patient. Too often, nurses will just keep the standards and not really use the alarm settings as a way to see changes in their patients. Never ever take report as the gospel. Sometimes, we repeat what we are told by another and it is like that game where you tell someone something and after it makes it through 12 people it is no longer recognizable. Always document what you see and hear. Just because the last 5 nurses charted clear lungs and sinus rhythm does not mean that the patient is still like that. always look at the patient first and the technology second. If lines are not zeroed appropriately, reading can be wrong and you are treating a monitor instead of a patient. Technology is great, but your eyes and ears are your best friend. always help others around you because it not only gives you a chance to see other patients and how other nurses work but it fosters a rapport with your team mates and they will be more willing to help you out in a pinch. if something unusual is going on in the unit and it is not your patient, go check it out anyway. Every day is a learning experience. When the doctors round, be a part of it. You learn their thought processes and build a relationship with them. They are more apt to respect your insight when you are calling them in the middle of the night and you really have nothing to report except you "feel" something is going on with the patient. don't take what patients say to you to heart. They are not at their best and half the time, it has nothing to do with you at all.

This is soooooo important. I do a fair amount of orientation and I always want every nurse to come to me with what they think they should do so we can work through the thought process. If you always just get fed an answer, then you take that answer at face value and just do it without knowing why. To me, WHY is the most important question of them all..lol. Always try to keep one line designated at your code line meaning if something happens, this is like your NS line where you know you can push critical meds to keep your patient alive. Always always label all of your lines and keep them from looking like a tub of worms so you know exactly where everything is when times get tight. keep your rooms neat and supplied because when the crap hits the fan, you do not want to kill brain cell time by moving stuff around in the room and searching for stuff.

Sounds to me like you are in a hospital that is way too small for what you want. Frankly, in a hospital that has less than 4 beds in their ICU, you are still not going to truly get a good ICU experince because most will get shipped out to a larger, more specialized facility. If I were you, I would just keep applying and applying frequently to ICU positions all over. Openings come and go and your application will eventually get reviewed. You might also want to look at your resume and make sure it pops! As to the nurse who metioned that some ICUs like new grads over floor nurses, we are experiencing that in our area as well. It used to always be the other way around where oyu had to have 2 years of floor work before entering the ICU. My last nurse manager verbally said that she preferred new grads to seasoned nurses because she felt new grads had not learned bad habits yet and they are easier to train in the way our ICU wants their nurses to perform and they are less expensive, salary wise.

I have been a critical care nurse for about 5 years and a nurse for 13+ but I have never worked in anything but a MICU. Now, I am looking at moving into a Level I trauma hospital's SICU that takes care of all the traumas, all neuro cases if that have any other problem besides just the neuro and all cardiac if they have something besides just cardiac. From how it sounds, the SICU gets all the specialties if they have more than just one issue going on. I am trying to figure out what types of educational materials I need to bone up on like particular spinal cord issues, neuro issues, surgical issues that are more commonly seen (if that is possible) in an SICU. What are the suggestions for where to focus my studies? This may sound like a silly post and I guess I am just really anal retentive, but I would like to go into the position with just a smidge more knowledge under my belt. Thanks in advance for any responses.:heartbeat

My last ICU was 24 bed MICU that took everything except open hearts. The staffing was 3 patients to one nurse. They also got the brilliant idea to start sending overflow into the ICU not to mention that they wanted to improve patient scores so they started keeping ALL rooms private and my ICU was getting not only tele overflow but also medical overflow that did not even require monitors!!! Then, because they always kept us full, when someone went bad on the floors, we had to rush to move out a paitent to get in a bad one.

Well, I guess my viewpoint is that ALL people deserve care no matter what their size without me trying to pass judgement or push my own agenda on them. Not only for our own safety, but the safety of the patient, you should always get help with pretty much all turns. Patients rate turns as the most painful part of an ICU experience. And, not all overweight people are over weight because they eat too much.

The last ICU I worked in allowed visitors 24/7 in unlimited amounts. It was not unusual to spend the majority of your shift caring for the family instead of the patient in some situations.

I am lost...I thought to be a CNS you had to be a BSN?

We use F here in this area. I think that if we don't think in celsius, it is hard to understand where you are...lol. Pt with rectal temp of 107 something...died a few days later on CRRT and every gtt known to mankind.