I recently had an ER job offer, then the employer offered me an ICU position, but ultimately I didn't accept it because I heard A LOT of bad things about the hospital (the agency I work for said multiple travel RNs request to never be sent there ever again). I REALLY want to work in ICU, but this particular hospital just didn't feel right since its had a lot of financial trouble in the past and has a pretty high turnover rate. It's gone bankrupt twice within the past ten years. It's also a very small and basic ICU with medicine and surgical patients only (no neurosurg/vascular/traumas/STEMIs). It does have vents, a-lines, central lines, and pressors though. My old classmates, nursing instructors, and coworkers told me NOT to go there. It is an older dilapidated hospital, but for some reason I feel like I'm passing up on a legitimate shot into critical care. I REALLY was considering sucking it up for a year just to get experience, but I wasn't sure if leaving the VA (veterans hospital) and losing my benefits for mediocre experience was worth it.
My plan is to start applying into other hospitals ICUs since my current hospital hires experienced ICU RNs only. No in house hires without experience. period (weird I know-everybody on my unit complains about it). I preferably want to get into trauma certified hospital. I currently work in PCU and have 2.5 years experience. I float to ICU sometimes to take care of PCU overflow and stable ICU patients. I just started a per diem that usually hires in house for critical care.
What are some things I can do to make myself a better applicant? Would getting my PCCN be helpful or irrelevant? Should I take a critical care course on my own? I already have ACLS and BART (it's required by my current job). I have shadowing at my current job (I float to ICU all the time). I will ask to shadow at my new per diem as well. I fear that a lot of employers will see me leaving the VA as a red flag since benefits are awesome. I'm just kind of bored there and there's no growth.
I am thinking about Leavign VA for ICU too. I have a panel interview next week
Do it. I'm glad I did. I love ICU. The VA is different than everywhere else and adapting to different and stricter policies can be a challenge, but overall I'm glad I made the move.
I marketed myself as an experienced, but coachable nurse. It worked for me as I got a total of two ICU offers. You also have to give the interviewer a reason to think that you're going to stay and not bail after a year to go back to travel nursing, e.g. saying you're getting married, having a kid, your spouse/SO got a local job, and/or want something more stable, etc. etc. I do sometimes wish I started in ICU, and while I'm sure I could have started in ICU as a new grad and been just fine, I'm glad I learned what I did on all the floors I worked on. Learning critical care has been fun, and since I already know how to be a nurse, I can focus on learning how to be an ICU nurse. I'm also not afraid to float to the floor (most of my coworkers WILL NOT) because I know what it entails.
I am one of those experienced nurses that also wonders why so many new grads are taken right into ICU over experienced nurses. So many ICU jobs out there want either new grads or ICU experience only (usually says ICU or crit care experience preferred but with market saturation the odds without this seem slim). I don't understand why an experienced un-specialized nurse would be looked over. I say boo to the 'breaking old habits' excuse.
I have almost 3 years med surg tele and cardiac tele experience and I'm also a current traveler. Once I'm done with travel I will likely have about 5 years experience and will want to seek a staff RN ICU position then, CICU or CTICU preferred. By that time I would like to have my CCRN certification too. Some say I would be ineligible to take this exam but others say I would not. I'm guessing the certification would make me more marketable and not a deterrent.
Progressive thinking- you mentioned that you pick up a lot of extra shifts. I'm curious how many shifts/hours you work per week and whether the shifts you pick up are in icu or other units.
26.2, BSN
81 Posts
I am thinking about Leavign VA for ICU too. I have a panel interview next week