Thinking of changing specialties.

[MCURN]

I have been a nurse for about 8 years, and most of my time has been spent in labour and delivery  and postpartum. However due to personal reasons I believe it’s best for me to change specialties. My hospital has a great training program for New ICU nurses. 24 weeks both classroom time and orientation on the floor. I applied not thinking I had much of a chance but I just received a phone call from the manager to set up a meeting to discuss my application. 

I worked on a surgical unit for my first year of nursing and don’t really want to go back.

I guess I am wondering if anyone else has made this big of a jump and how your experience went.  Also any tips of things I should learn or look up prior to starting. 
 

thanks for the input in advance. 

[JBMmom, MSN, NP]

Good for you for taking the leap! It sounds like the ICU orientation program is a great start for nurses making that change, hopefully you find it to be the fit that you're looking for. If you're looking for an easy read, Critical Care for Dummies is well written with some easy to remember tips, but most of it will likely be covered in the orientation so don't worry too much about studying ahead of time. Good luck!