Should I stop travel nursing on the floor to specialize?

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Specializes in PCU, TELE, MS.

I have done pcu, ms, tele for 6 years and I hate it. It's so chaotic I can't even provide good patient care and am so exhausted on my days off from running around like an insane person that I don't have much of a life outside work. I 100% know that ICU is stressful but I'm thinking of trying it... My biggest regret after nursing was not specializing right away. I was offered a staff position in Southern California and thinking of stopping travel nursing in the SF Bay Area, taking a (large) pay cut, to try a SICU position at a level 2 (350 bed hospital).

Am I making a mistake doing this? What are the main differences in exhaustion levels between chaotic floor nursing and ICU? Is there another specialty you would recommend that I can try to do a fellowship in? I'm finding it hard to get into a specialty and this is the only one I've heard back from and offered a fellowship in.

Thanks for any info or advice, truly appreciate any kind words of wisdom!

6 Answers

Specializes in New Critical care NP, Critical care, Med-surg, LTC.
ReefRN said:

Am I making a mistake doing this? What are the main differences in exhaustion levels between chaotic floor nursing and ICU?

I wouldn't be able to tell you whether you're making a mistake, I can only share my experience. I enjoyed my med-surg experience but in the end I chose to move to ICU because I wanted to know more about everything going on with my patients. My med-surg busy was more physically busy in that I covered a lot of ground with 6-8 patients on nights, spread throughout the 30 bed unit. For the most part, the patients were very stable and I could usually count on at least 1-2 to sleep a good portion of the night. When things got crazy was when there were more labor intensive interventions like CBI, hanging blood, post -surgical pain management. And when I had a patient experiencing an acute change in condition it could throw everything else way off schedule. 

In ICU, for the most part I'm in my patient's rooms multiple times an hour. The chaotic part is managing 8-12 drips on 1-2 patients (and sometimes 3, but hopefully one is less busy), and when things start going bad you're stuck in there trying to fix stuff. There's a lot more to know about each patient and their condition and current interventions. Vent settings, drip titrations, etc. (I don't work in a high acuity unit with ballon pumps or CVVH) You're much more involved in every aspect of patient care than on a med-surg floor.

You won't know until you try it, good luck with whatever you choose. 

All floor nursing positions are  chaotic. Get a work from home job for an insurance company.

Specializes in Postpartum/Public Health.


You bring a wealth of experience to the table, which is fantastic. Given your established relationships with your agency, travel nursing seems like an option that will always be open to you, right? Assuming there are no repercussions from a hospital for training you as an ICU RN and then departing after a year or so, exploring this path shouldn't pose an issue. Moreover, specializing as an ICU nurse could enhance your qualifications if you decide to return to travel nursing, potentially leading to higher compensation during your assignments.

Specializes in Surgical, CVICU & Oncology, Med/Surg.

The truth is there is burnout everywhere. Just varying types of burnout. See what works best for you & it all depends on what your plans are for the future. Does specializing align with your future goals? 

Specializes in PCU, TELE, MS.
Been there,done that said:

All floor nursing positions are  chaotic. Get a work from home job for an insurance company.

Yeah I wish I could get that kind of position that was enough to pay my bills. I never hear back from those positions 

Specializes in Health Writing, Critical Care & Advanced Practice.
Quote

What are the main differences in exhaustion levels between chaotic floor nursing and ICU

Your focus is on one to two patients in ICU, as opposed to the six or sometimes seven on M/S/tele floors. That being said, I owed my mental exhaustion to staying mindful of 3X the number of patients and physical exhaustion to dodging across the unit like a ping-pong ball for 12 hours in acute care. In ICU, managing the medical intricacies of critical care along its emotion burden is mentally taxing. As for physically, certain days you quite literally won't leave a patient's room with the exception of a brief bathroom break.

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