Ok, all, please forgive the long post, but I want to lay the situation out properly.
I managed to get into a Neuro/Cardiac ICU. Yay, me! Loved the area, so I got a little house. Figured I'd get a few years experience, then I'd have my tax home and a place to come back to in the winter (Florida ALWAYS needs nurses in winter).
Fast forward 2 years, and... I may have a problem. What I had thought was great and exciting now seems fairly low acuity for an ICU.
I almost never see much cardiac equipment. We get an Arctic Sun or balloon pump MAYBE once every 6-8 months. I've seen a rotation therapy bed ONCE, and CRRT maybe twice in 2 years. We don't get external pacers or cardioversions all that much. And I've never even seen a PA catheter.
We mostly seem to get STEMI/NSTEMI, HTN crisis, CHF, COPD, strokes, tumors and the occasional sepsis. I can do drips and vents. I can pull lines post-cath. I'm comfortable with monitoring EVD's (not setting one up - our docs take the pt down to OR for that), I'm NIHSS certified, and I think I could do neuro checks in my sleep.
I really want to travel, but looking at some of the skills checksheets on different sites, I'm a little concerned that my ICU experience may not be as "Intensive" as I'd originally thought. I am planning to sign on with a local temp. agency to do some per diem at other places, but the only hospitals within a halfway reasonable driving distance from home are just as small and have about the same acuity as mine.
Some of my co-workers who came from traveling have said I'd be fine in smaller towns/hospitals, and I was thinking maybe stepdown/IMC units on larger ones. Does this sound feasible? ARE there a decent amount of stepdown units or small hospitals needing travelers? I just don't want to get out there and hurt my patients or my license by jumping in if I'm not reasonably ready.
Thank you to anyone who takes the time to read this, and virtual hugs for any advice.
~N. Nurse
