What type of nursing job can I get with ICU experience

enuf_already · May 30, 2016

I think the bigger question is what kind of nursing job can you get with only 5 months of experience?

It is a difficult transition to move from student nurse to new graduate nurse. You are not supposed to feel comfortable in your nurse skin yet.

I applaud you for being willing to stick it out a year. Absorb all the knowledge you can now that will help you in the future.

When you apply for jobs outside the bedside (I'm gathering that's what you are looking for since the majority of hospitalized patients are very sick these days) you will be competing with nurses with years of experience for those jobs. Think about what you really want to do and why.

It disheartens me that so many new grads want to jump ship so soon. I'm seeing it where I work and it certainly makes staff reluctant to take on new grads or nurses with less than a year's experience.

I wish you luck in finding your perfect job.

Maevish, ASN, RN · May 31, 2016

Hello! I am a fairly new nurse who has been working 5 months in an ICU. I started off here as a new grad straight out of school. I do not enjoy being an ICU nurse. I thought it would be exciting but I think ICU is maybe not my niche for many reasons. I do not like critical care and floor nursing. I think for my personality it is too stressful for me. I do not like dealing with codes, MTP's, patients dying all the time, and just the high stress of it. Also, I hate seeing how awfully sick the patients are in the ICU. I think i would better enjoy a place in nursing where I am not stuck with patients for 12 hours. I dont mind working 12's and I DO enjoy helping people get better, but just not in the ICU. I would more so like to know what other options are out there for me having some ICU experience. I am willing to stick it out for a year to get my 1 year experience but I CANNOT stay any longer than that. I will be out of the door by 1 year. Thanks!

At the end of a year, you technically can now be trained to do most any nursing job, but I wish I could tell you that finding a job will be a piece of cake (which, at this point, it should be). You just have to pick whatever area(s) you are interested in and keep applying. I've been doing that for the past year-and-a-half cause I'm sick of travel nursing and they either say they can't train someone (even though I got that response to new grad job postings) or they've already filled the positions (which is doubtful with the sometimes multiple pages of jobs certain hospitals have listed on their websites.

Good luck and yes, you can do nearly every nursing job now because you should have the critical thinking/big picture part of it, the improved speed and efficacy of your treatments and assessments, plus you're probably not freaking out every time you come to work any more after all this time.

Also, the turnover for the non-bedside jobs (like advice nursing or even the well baby nursery jobs) isn't as high because people can stay at those jobs longer than they can adult ICU, ER, etc where it's so much harder on your body and you're lifting large loads/coding nearly daily.

You can do it, just be persistent and realize that if you choose another specialty (OR, L&D, NICU, etc) that you should stay at that next job for at least a year, even if you don't like it, because they will have spent a lot of time and money training you and it doesn't look good on a resume if you hop around all the time.

xo

NURSEJSS · May 31, 2016

I think the bigger question is what kind of nursing job can you get with only 5 months of experience?
It is a difficult transition to move from student nurse to new graduate nurse. You are not supposed to feel comfortable in your nurse skin yet.
I applaud you for being willing to stick it out a year. Absorb all the knowledge you can now that will help you in the future.
When you apply for jobs outside the bedside (I'm gathering that's what you are looking for since the majority of hospitalized patients are very sick these days) you will be competing with nurses with years of experience for those jobs. Think about what you really want to do and why.
It disheartens me that so many new grads want to jump ship so soon. I'm seeing it where I work and it certainly makes staff reluctant to take on new grads or nurses with less than a year's experience.
I wish you luck in finding your perfect job.

Thank you for replying. It's not so much that I don't feel comfortable in my nurse skin. I recognize that every new job rakes it's time to feel confident and I don't have a problem with not knowing how to do things and get things done or assessing situations appropriately. I think I am actually getting better at it. I don't go to work anymore scared and nervous. I go ready and I am pretty good at anticipating things I need to do. I have a good rhythm of how to do my work. What I don't like is the work itself. I thought I would enjoy taking care of patients and their families but I don't. The high stress affects me a lot even when I come home. I hate seeing people so incredibly sick. It doesn't scare me, I just don't like it. I have been able to work with patients on multiple drips who are crashing, patients who come unstable from OR or a trauma. Etc. it is not that I can't do it or don't feel comfortable in my skin, it is the work itself I just do not like. But then again how would I know? Maybe the way I feel is ALSO part of being a new nurse and I have to live through it. That is what I don't understand

Anonymous666 · Jun 2, 2016

I'd say the way you feel is pretty normal. Everyone who works in such an area has a love-hate relationship with the job. With a year experience in ICU, you'll pretty much be able to work anywhere. Home health was a nice break from floor nursing for me. Good luck.

calivianya, BSN, RN · Jun 3, 2016

I have started hate being stuck with the patients for 12 hours, too. It's not so bad if they're unconscious, but it's bad once they start waking up and being nosy and intrusive into your personal life.

I have seen a lot of people go to PACU from ICU. It might be way more to your speed - you don't have to keep the patients all shift, and you need that ICU experience just in case someone doesn't do well after they're extubated.

Maevish, ASN, RN · Jun 8, 2016

I have started hate being stuck with the patients for 12 hours, too. It's not so bad if they're unconscious, but it's bad once they start waking up and being nosy and intrusive into your personal life.
I have seen a lot of people go to PACU from ICU. It might be way more to your speed - you don't have to keep the patients all shift, and you need that ICU experience just in case someone doesn't do well after they're extubated.

PACU is great! Wake 'em up, pack 'em out! :sarcastic: Or plastic surgery...that's the dream. Worked part time at one office for years and it was the best!!

xo

NurseNHowell · Jun 9, 2016

Have you considered what position in the hospital you might like? I know my old job there was a new grad who went straight into ER and hated it. I talked to her occasionally when my frequent flyers came in and I knew she hated it. I heard she switched to the float pool after her 1yr. Doing my RN clinicals I saw she now worked in L&D and she seemed extremely happy.

Maybe give it a few month more then be honest with your manager that you feel the ICU might not be for you and see about transferring to another department or to the float pool to try your toes in other departments... or to at least have a job until you find your niche away from hospital work?