What is the best route? OR to ICU?

[ntobiasson]

I am going to graduate nursing within the next month or so. I have been a scrub tech in the OR for the last 8 years. I have been on the trauma team, I love understanding patho physiology to a deeper level, learning about the drugs and helping save peoples lives. i was wondering if there is someone out there who has been a scrub tech, is now an ICU nurse and the transition that they had to make into the ICU environment. Is that a route I should take? Thanks for everyone's help!

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Never been in the OR; never wanted to be. I've had two colleagues who went from OR nursing to ICU nursing; both because they wanted to go to anesthesia school and needed the ICU experience. One had been a tech in the OR and came into the ICU immediately on getting her BSN. She did well -- she was a real asset to our team. The other had been in the OR since graduation -- about eight years I think -- and had a difficult time adjusting to the different mind set in the ICU. She was a high maintenance co-worker. She required a lot of help, wasn't a good critical thinker or problem solver and the charge nurses had to watch her like a hawk. She also had an attitude that ICU was no big deal -- which was probably a big part of her problem. She was just passing through, she had no investment in our unit or our patients. We were all glad to see her get accepted to anesthesia school and move on, although I certainly wouldn't want her passing has on MY family.