Studying at home.

so, as a student, i have always been interested in icu. don't know if i'll ever get there, but... even now, i try to pay attention to comorbidities... labs, labs, labs... my own vitals/assessment (critical thinking ) step back and let nagging intuition have a say, when i see someone i feel is about to take a dive, "what is trying to kill you?"

Going from M/S to ICU is intimidating. I'm not going to let that stop me though.

Is it meds? New advances/procedures? Studying patho. of things you run into at work?

What would you study if you were new in the ICU?

All those things you mentioned. As you read through your patients' charts ... jot down any terms mentioned in test results & H&Ps that you aren't familiar with to look up later at home. You'll come away with a better "big picture" understanding of that particular patient and an increased knowledge base.

I used to do that when I was new to M/S. Jot down diagnosis and look them up at home, see why things were being done. Might have to go back to that.

When I was new in the ICU, I started by taking every critical care course offered at my hospital. I even took some of them 2 and 3 times. In addition, I studied drugs and illnesses in my free time. I took ACLS. I studied rhythms. I would print all the strips at our monitoring station and take them home since it always looks different on a real patient than it does in the textbooks. Rhythms are one of the few things I would agree would be helpful to know before you get to the ICU. When I had a free moment, I would read everything I could on my patient. I jumped on every opportunity to participate in procedures with patients (even if they weren't assigned to me). I went to every code I could.

I still ask tons of questions. I ask everyone questions...other nurses, docs, CT techs, cardiovascular techs, lab techs, etc. I still study. I re-read portions of my nursing school texts. I read critical care texts. I read research articles. We have access to UptoDate at work and I look up stuff about my patients there.

Critical care may seem scary but let me tell you something - I am a wreck when I get pulled to the floor. I am way more comfortable taking care of 2-3 very sick people than I am taking care of 6-7 semi-sick people that I know nothing about!

Don't wait to go because you're worried about what you don't know! Everyone has to start somewhere! Good luck...hope you love ICU!

I just ordered some refresher books (Made Incredibly series) this afternoon . I'm planning to cross train to Med surg either this summer or fall, then eventually on to O.B. later down the road. It will be a challenge for me too. Happy studying at home!