"They" say if you're miserable in acute care, try ICU???

[EiEiO_55120]

I knew all through nursing school that I didn't want to work in a hospital. It's the frenetic pace that gets me. I like to be busy, but that type of environment feels like chaos to me.

(Insert funny new nurse montage)

Fast forward two years, and guess where I'm working? In a hospital.

I work on an acute rehab unit- mostly TBI, strokes, SCI. The pace here is different than a medicine unit. It's still busy but a different kind of busy- back breaking and way more charting and beurocratic nonsense.

When I float to other units, I feel woefully unprepared. (On my home unit I can go months without so much as touching an infusion pump.) I think the adage "use it or lose it" applies.

So here's my question... There have recently been some openings in an ICU immersion program where I work. I have heard time and time again that if you are unhappy in acute care to try ICU. I'd like to hear what others think of this idea and how ICU is different than other acute care work.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

I don't know that I believe what you've heard. For some it may be true, for others it may not be true. Each nurse is an individual; what they find as their niche isn't going to be the same as everyone else. What matters is if you are interested in ICU nursing.