emilyewrn

The only advice I have is to be prepared. You'll always be nervous for interviews, but being well prepared really helps! I always write out a list of questions I think they'll ask a few days before, as well as answers to those questions. I usually read through my questions/answers the few days before the interview, as well as right before I go into the interview. That usually helps me to have my thoughts organized so I can communicate more effectively and avoid stumbling on my words. Also don't be afraid to say "Can we come back to this question?" if you can't think of answer right away. I've done that in plenty of interviews! But don't stress too much, it was your first interview! I think that good interviewing skills do come with practice. Take this as a learning experience as far as what you can do better for your next interview. Good luck!

I work as an RN in Chicago! I work at a hospital in the city and live about 2 blocks from work. Chicago is definitely more expensive that some other cities, but the cost of living isn't too bad depending what neighborhood you want to live in. I make about $30/hr and pay about $1000-1200 in rent/month and live in the Lakeview area of the city. Unfortunately, the job market especially in the metro area is pretty saturated and its hard to find a job especially for new nurses. Took some of my peers a long time to find jobs, but don't let that discourage you. Its a great city with a bunch of awesome hospitals. Northwestern and Loyola often hire new grads.

SICU if its a level 1 trauma. Nothing is quite as fun as getting a bad trauma! Trauma patients can be incredibly sick and often have multi-system injury. Also, SICU definitely has more in the way of invasive lines. But I'm also incredibly bias considering I've been working with surgical patients since I graduated. Either way, ICU is a great learning experience!

Didn't come from a step-down, but went from a year of surg-tele experience to a SICU in a level I trauma. You're definitely on the right track by saying you want to be the most coachable orientee. Many of the experienced ICU nurses I work with have commented that the worst quality in a new hire is acting like they know everything or not being open to learning new things. Ask tons of questions! Once you have a good foundation (i.e. you feel comfortable with critical care pharmacology, understand the basics of mechanical ventilation, etc.), I recommend seeking new experiences. That may mean taking the sickest patient on the unit, or taking a type of patient you have not cared for before. Do this on orientation, but also do this off orientation which you are working with strong, experienced ICU nurses who you know will support you and offer you guidance as needed. Lastly, I highly highly recommend the pass CCRN book if you are looking for outside resources. It offers concise, but very pertinent information on different critical care disease processes, their patho, their presentations, their treatments, etc. It's very up to date. Great purchase if you plan on taking CCRN eventually anyways. It helped me a lot, I would go home after my shift and look up whatever issues my patient(s) that day had.

I work in SICU and we usually use the propofol/fentanyl combo for short term use. We never use propofol alone without something for pain management as well. For longer term, ativan/fentanyl. We use precedex on those who wake up agitated and crazy when weaning proposal. Precedex is nice because it can be used on extubated patients as well.

The PASS CCRN book is amazing (regardless of whether or not you plan on ever taking the CCRN), highly recommend it. It explains different critical care disease processes for each system, explains their etiologies/pathophysiology, signs/symptoms, nursing interventions, and treatments. It is very concise and well organized, as well as up to date! I started in SICU about 4 months ago and this book really helped me to be successful. When I got home from work I would just look up whatever issues my patient had.

Be sure that you are really okay with having everything be completely online. That's my only real advice. I took three 8 week graduate classes at Chamberlain before decided to transfer elsewhere. Otherwise it seems to be an organized program, the online classes are very manageable with working FT.

Hey everyone, Just wanted a little advice. I have an interview scheduled next week for a per diem GI lab position. I do not have any GI lab experience, but have a year of surgical tele experience and so far about 3 months of SICU experience. I know I should highlight my extensive experience with the GI population that I had on the surgical unit, as well as the fact that I am somewhat comfortable with vents and recovering patients (we recover our own patients in SICU, they bypass the PACU). I am already ACLS and tele certified. GI lab is something I have wanted for awhile and a speciality I see myself in for a long time. My ultimate goal is to be a GI NP. I know getting GI lab experience is important so I REALLY want this job. I plan on picking up 8-12 hours/wk. I plan on dropping down my hours in the SICU a year from now when I start NP clinicals, so locking in a per diem position would be awesome. Any tips from the GI lab nurses out there?! Or nurses who have gotten per diem positions on top of their full-time jobs?! Also, do you think is it appropriate to ask my current manager for a reference (I have been in SICU for 3 months)?

I started the FNP program at Chamberlain in January and have since transferred out to Resurrection University (I live in Chicago). I think you need to assess what type of learning environment you do best in. Personally, a few online classes don't bother me but I learn by bouncing my ideas off of others and felt I would get this in an in-class environment. If you do well with online learning and enjoy it, you will be fine. The Chamberlain program was very manageable with working full-time, I took three classes, got all A's, and did not feel overwhelmed at all. However, I felt that having to find our own clinical sites would leave me unprepared to sit and take a board exam. I'm starting Resurrection's program in September!

Thanks for the comments. Good to know that you never get used to it. You're probably right in saying some patients affect us differently than others, since I've been in a few similar situations and felt very little emotion. And yes it is definitely different to be in an environment where I am often dealing with death. Thank you for letting me vent!

Thank you for the support. I'm sure it'll just take some time/getting used to. Good luck in school! Nursing isn't easy, but it's an amazing job.

I'm new nurse in the SICU (I came from a surgical tele unit with about a year of experience) and I'm almost finished with my orientation, so I've been on the unit for about 3 months. Being that our hospital does not have a trauma ICU (we are trauma I), we get all the traumas. Since it's summer, we've gotten plenty of motorcycle accidents and other traumas. I've had 3 patients declared clinically brain dead since I started (they were all "bad head" pts) and recently cared for another patient with elevated ICP's that refused to budge even after intervention possible. This patient made me particularly emotional. I'd cared for the patient for 3- 12 hour shifts, the last of which ended with the neurosurg resident telling me he thought the patient was progressing to brain death after I called him telling him I was concerned about the patient's change in condition (I don't want to post too much about the patient's case specifically on here). I absolutely love SICU so far and am learning a lot, but after that 12 hour shift I went home feeling disappointed, defeated, and even a little bit angry. I think I feel this way because we had spent so much time trying to save the patient, and I realized we weren't going to be able to. I felt more frustrated than anything else. I guess I'm just having trouble dealing with it because it's something I'm not used to, not sure how the experienced ICU nurses handle it (?). I didn't feel quite as emotional with the last 3 "bad head" patients I had, so I'm not sure if it was this patient in particular or just pent up emotions surfacing after this kind of broke the straw. I'm just having a little trouble adjusting to the emotional aspect of being an ICU nurse. You don't have to comment, just wanted to vent.

Just wanted to thank you guys for suggesting the CCRN book. It has honestly helped me so much with learning critical care as far as theory goes. I use it as a supplement to ECCO and my what I've learned on the unit/from my preceptors.

Thanks everyone for all the helpful suggestions!

Thanks for the suggestions! I am planning to get my CCRN sometime in the future so buying the book sounds like a great idea.