I finally decided to Transfer to the Intensive Care Unit.
It has always been a dream of mine to work with critical patients but I never seemed ready. I was fearful and didn't think I would be able to handle critical situations.
Before you can work on the unit with patients you must go through intense training. It takes several weeks going through modules and passing tests in a classroom on a computer on your own. It's like nursing school all over again.
I love to learn and that's something I will continue to do as long as I'm working.
With the critically ill, I will see many different types of patients and give new medications that I have never heard of before.
I just completed six weeks of training with an experienced critical care nurse on the unit. A good coach really makes a difference. She has taught me so much and was very diligent in making sure I knew what I was doing. Knowing what to do and how to chart it right is essential to nursing. If you didn't chart it, it didn't happen (in the court room of course, if there were ever a problem).
Although I haven't seen it all in six week I feel prepared to work on my own. I know that I will never be alone and that there is always someone I can ask for help. "Use your resources" was what I heard over and over again, and that is what I will do.
The nurses in the ICU are so different than the nurses I worked with before. There is a sense of ownership with their patients; when you work with five or six patients in a day it is impossible know every detail about each patient. The people there also crave education. Many of them are working towards a Masters degree or simply members of a nursing association. They talk about going to seminars and research they have recently read. When something comes up and they don't know they will go and find a source of information that help them understand it better. The opportunities seem endless and everyone is proactive and extremely nice. It's awesome just working with some older nurses who have had several years of experience and have seen and done it all.
I look forward to growing and furthering my education as a new critical care nurse.
It has always been a dream of mine to work with critical patients but I never seemed ready. I was fearful and didn't think I would be able to handle critical situations.
Before you can work on the unit with patients you must go through intense training. It takes several weeks going through modules and passing tests in a classroom on a computer on your own. It's like nursing school all over again.
I love to learn and that's something I will continue to do as long as I'm working.
With the critically ill, I will see many different types of patients and give new medications that I have never heard of before.
I just completed six weeks of training with an experienced critical care nurse on the unit. A good coach really makes a difference. She has taught me so much and was very diligent in making sure I knew what I was doing. Knowing what to do and how to chart it right is essential to nursing. If you didn't chart it, it didn't happen (in the court room of course, if there were ever a problem).
Although I haven't seen it all in six week I feel prepared to work on my own. I know that I will never be alone and that there is always someone I can ask for help. "Use your resources" was what I heard over and over again, and that is what I will do.
The nurses in the ICU are so different than the nurses I worked with before. There is a sense of ownership with their patients; when you work with five or six patients in a day it is impossible know every detail about each patient. The people there also crave education. Many of them are working towards a Masters degree or simply members of a nursing association. They talk about going to seminars and research they have recently read. When something comes up and they don't know they will go and find a source of information that help them understand it better. The opportunities seem endless and everyone is proactive and extremely nice. It's awesome just working with some older nurses who have had several years of experience and have seen and done it all.
I look forward to growing and furthering my education as a new critical care nurse.