I spent my first year in an MSICU with 22 beds, I understand that new grads need to get the experience of taking care of the sickest of the sick, but we all have to start somewhere. I actually left this particular unit because I felt that new nurses were put into compromising situations when patients were crashing and the resource/charge nurse was not available to assist in pt care. I knew what I was getting into, I wanted to take the sickest of the sick, but at the same time patient safety is a HUGE concern. It is very appropriate to give new grads sick patients when there are resources to support them, I just think it's crazy for people to criticize newbies for not feeling completely comfortable with taking the sickest of the sick, if you learn to ride a bike you don't just jump on you do the training wheels then once you get things underway you remove them and spread your wings, that is how nursing needs to be for me. Being a new grad it is SO important to learn organization and fine tune your assessment skills so that when you do get your sick pts you can take the necessary actions. I also understand that the senior staff cant consistently take the sickest of the sick, however it is critical care and we all have to meet half way and realize that it is our duty to care for the sickest of the sick and somehow we need to balance this out among nursing staff. My new job has 9 new nurses ALL going to nites, so it will be interesting to see how we all function off orientation, some of them are new grads, where others have experience other than PICU, should be interesting to see how pt assignments are organized especially because we try to follow our patients with our own form of primary nursing care.
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