katej326

Apologies for the confusion. I am talking about a psychiatric intensive care unit - there is one at a major hospital in my city (Seattle). My instructor called it a PICU, but now I understand that acronym is usually considered pediatric ICU. It is attached to the ICU rather than the inpatient psych units.

Hi there, I am in the process of selecting my senior practicum site for my BSN. I am considering requesting the PICU at a local Level I trauma center. I love psych nursing, but I also want to be sure that I get a chance to practice my critical care skills; managing multiple lines, titration of meds, reading monitors, starting IV's, placing foleys/NG's, etc. I want all the stuff my cohot will be doing in Med/Surg, but with acute psych patients. Just trying to set myself up for success in a competitive job market! I would love to hear from any PICU nurses about what kinds of medical care they perform on a daily basis, and how transferable those skills are to other units. Hope my question doesn't sounds too naiive :) Thank you for any and all input!

Hi all, I also thought the essay question was really good and complex, though I could have used another hour to think it through. I feel I communicated what I needed to I guess. Congrats to eveyone who made it through the first round. We should feel honored. I posted here because I wanted to know if anyone else had trouble with the math part. I'm super stressed about the fact that I only finished one of the three in full, since I forgot how to do dosage conversions, or at least not in 2 minutes or less. Anyone else have that trouble?

Wow! Just finished the essay and math quiz. That was intense! The question was good and well thought-out given the competitive entry process, but I was not expecting anything that involved for an hour time limit. And the math.... the only one I finished in full was the first one. Yikes! For the woman in Bellingham, just an FYI: Carolyn Chow said they have over 500 applicants and it was the best applicant pool they had seen in a long time. I think we had around 225 in that lecture hall, not including out of area proctored essays. Good luck everyone!