Question regarding CCRN eligibility.

Yes- those hours need to be in critical care. You're not going to have any idea what the test is all about without working in critical care, anyway. All types of nursing certification (such as CCRN) require a certain number of hours worked in the specialty that you are being certified in. By becoming certified, you are demonstrating mastery of a certain area of care. You can't master an area without working there and immersing yourself in it for a certain period of time. Certifying before immersion would be putting the cart before the horse, so to speak.

I hope that cleared things up a bit for you.

thanks for reply.

so when is best time to transfer to ICU unit? im on my last week of orientation and i'm on the Med-Surg floor but i want more challenging patients. and how much time in average take to transfer to ICU for New nurse?

You'll find plenty of challenging patients in Med/Surg, as I'm sure some of our Med/Surg nurses here will tell you.

If you are a new nurse, and this is your first nursing job, you may want to stay there about a year. That'll not only enable you to get some valuable nursing skills under your belt, but it'll also show that you don't move around frequently.

Many ICU's are willing to take new grads into an orientation period. I work in a CVICU and we are taking our first new grad in the next couple of weeks, but understand an orientation period will be longer then a med-surg floor. Our new grad is expected to be in orientation 8 months to a year.

echoing the above statement. The hours must be clincal hours at the bedside of the acute care setting (critical care).

And I would encourage you to follow your interests. Most ICU's are hiring new grads. My unit is hiring 12 GN's over the next 3 months!

I started as a GN in the ICU setting. It's tough and demanding, but if it's what you want then go for it!

Best of luck.