Which is better experience for ICU?

[thich]

I'm a new grad and have the opportunity to train in either an ER or a surgical/trauma floor. Down the road I would like to transition to ICU. What are your thoughts? I see bonuses and drawbacks to both and would like some input from people who have made the change.

[delphine22]

My personal opinion? The floor would be better. You would learn more of the basic nursing skills that you need to get out of the way before coming to the ICU -- passing meds, charting, calling doctors, dealing with families. Yes, you do that in the ER, but it's a different pace and different animal.

It kinda sounds like an odd question to me because most people I know who go to the ER, that's where they want to be. It's not a transition to something else. (Unless perhaps flight nursing.) If you want to do ER nursing, go ahead and do it. It's not impossible to transfer from ER to anywhere else. But if you're asking is the better preparation for ICU, I still say the floor.

[guest769224]

ER will give you an edge obtaining critical care experience. That will likely be more impressive than floor nursing. In the ER, sometimes you have to care for ICU patients. What better way to learn the ropes

[VANurse2010]

Disagree with above. Your assessment skills for ICU will be better honed on the floor.

[ProgressiveThinking, MSN, CRNA]

Floor nursing sucks though. I had a similar opportunity as you, and I wish I started in the ER. I agree with ICUman. You will be taking care of ICU pts, and you will be able to use that as a selling point in an ICU interview. Floor assessment skills only go so far, and depending on the floor you really won't have that much time to assess anyways. I chose to start on a PCU type floor, and while I did learn some, I feel like I would have seen a wider variety of things in ER. I've seen a couple of ER nurses transfer to ICU with ease. If anything they say it's easier and their skills transferred well.

[ICUNurseG]

There are pros and cons to both. ER nursing will give you better skills (IVs, NGs, etc) and critical experience, although where I work new nurses aren't assigned trauma/code rooms for a year (but will still assist w those pts). Floor nursing will teach you head to toe assessment (ER is more focused) and time management. You will also build more of a repore with doctors and other inpatient staff (PT/OT/RT).

Honestly either way you can't go wrong. I've only worked ICU but I've seen people come from both med surg and ER and do well. Just apply yourself- any experience is good experience.

[thich]

Thanks for the advice everyone! It seems like nursing in general is so fluid and flexible that almost any path is viable.