Student Final Placement in ICU

[paperbag_panda]

I'm a fourth year nursing student and I'm hoping to apply for the ICU/Cardiac Surgery Recovery Unit for my final placement. However I have a few questions about the unit..

1. What kinds of things would I learn in the ICU versus on a surgical unit for example?

2. What kinds of skills are required in the ICU?

3. Do you think it's worth it to have my final placement in the ICU? Or would I be better off on a general med/surg floor to focus on more basic nursing skills?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Smalltimore]

I did my final practicum in a MICU so I don't have advice specific to cards, but I would highly recommend it if you're interested in starting out in critical care. You will get a chance to practice lots of basic nursing skills: foleys, blood draws, suctioning, wound care, and giving meds and blood products. It's also an awesome place to work on your assessment skills, on critical patients you have to be very thorough and pay attention to small changes. I gained confidence in my ability to notice when something wasn't right, even if I didn't always know why. The doctors are always around, which means you get a lot of practice communicating with them.

You will probably get to participate in codes and it's really cool to be on a unit where your patient doesn't get shipped off when they decompensate because they're no where else for them to go. Finally, you will get a chance to work with dying patients which, for me, was the most valuable part of my time there. I saw good deaths and not so good ones, and that has really informed the way I interact with patients and their families at the end of their lives.

[paperbag_panda]

Thank you! That's really helpful to hear :) Reading that makes me more excited/hopeful that I get the placement, yours sounds like it was such a great learning experience!

[bloatedputti, MSN, RN]

MICU is more of a hodgepodge of patient with respiratory and infectious issues. Surgery is like it sounds, post-ops. Patients can come straight from OR, or from the PACU first. Both areas have vented patients, so be prepared to learn all about care associated with that. Know for both areas, vasoactive drips, chest tubes,central lines, Pa catheters. if youre a type A, great student, you can handle being new.it will be a bit rocky for awhile though.

[calivianya, BSN, RN]

I did my final placement in a MICU, and I was taking both of my preceptor's patients by the end of it. If you want to go into critical care, this is the best way. I had a huge leg up over people who had no ICU experience in school, both in getting hired in ICU and when starting my job. At my first job, I was able to take both of my preceptor's patients on the second day of orientation because I had six weeks of ICU experience already.