Paul Mauer

I am curious how nursing in ICU is in the USA. I am a RN nurse -since '93- in th Netherlands and now in training for ICU. We only have one kind of degree of nurses working in hospitals. A nurse has to be at least one year RN if he wanted to start for example ICU. It is not possible to work on ICU without training or being in training. In the Netherlands we believe that we are a modern country and that we have a high level of healthcare. The schooling of basic nurse takes five year, than you are allowed to work in a general hospital, mental (= psychiatric?) hospital, institution for mentally handicaped, and district nursing. ICU training takes one year and a half, and recently, training is not including CCU anymore. On ICU we do ventilation. I read about respiratory therapist, I think we dont have that in the netherlands. The doctor and nurse determine the breathing mode (like ASB, CPPV, BIPAP, PCV, and SIMV)...... I would like to have contact with american (IC)nurses to talk about the differences between nursing in our countries.

I am so amazed that things are so totaly different organized. I am a nurse in the Netherlands. I am in training now for ICU, that takes 1 year and a half. When you want to start this education/training, you have to be at least registered for one year. Do I understand that RN can work on ICU without any school, in the USA ? How does education for RN looks like in USA. Here in the Netherlands you've got to go to school for five years, you also go intern for a couple of months each year. You are educated for four fields: general hospital, psyciatric hospital, metally handicaped home, and nursing people at home. After all that after a year you can enter ICU training programe. I am wondering how it is organized in USA.