What is it Like to Be an ICU Nurse

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An Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Nurse works in the Intensive Care Unit where patients requiring ongoing intensive care are treated. These are patients who have either recently been treated, and need ongoing intensive care or preparing for treatment in the form of surgery, or other life saving procedures.

Responsibilities

An ICU nurse may also find themselves working as a flight nurse, as a patient being air transported is usually in need of specialized care and needs the extra attention of a nurse used to this.

ICU nurses are often known as Critical Care nurses. They share many of the same responsibilities in that they oversee the care and functioning of those in need of intensive care. They advocate for patients and families and are the lifeline between patient and doctor and doctor and family.

An ICU nurse also administer lab testing, medication and keeps the charts updated for the patient. However, there is more to an ICU nurse job duties; they review charts with doctors, set I.V.’s, dress wounds, sedate patients as needed and prep for surgery.

As an ICU nurse, you may find yourself performing life-saving procedures like defibrillation, intubation, blind suctioning, among other duties. This is a job where you must think on your feet and stay calm in the storm, as the true nature of Intensive Care is that patients are often on the edge of life and death.

The Need for More Help

The Intensive Care Unit is one that has the highest mortality rate in modern hospitals, so it is important that an ICU nurse has a good balance of caring and detachment from their patients. The reasons for high mortality are due to those who are there having complex medical problems. It is the reason for the intensive care. Due to this, good charting skills and patient attentiveness is important. The Intensive Care Unit, due to its high mortality rate is going to be the most audited area of the hospital.

However, it will not be the same every day. Every patient in Intensive care is expected to change rapidly. If you are someone who likes to work with different problems on a regular basis, then ICU is likely a good place for you.

In addition, if you are someone who is detail oriented, this may be a good workplace for you as everything is managed down to the minute for each patient, and the details count. Something as small as a change in temperature of .5% could mean life and death for an intensive care patient.

It is not a place for you, if you can easily get attached to patients since they will be moving on to other areas of the hospital, and also experience a higher mortality rate in this part of the hospital. This can be difficult for someone who likes to see treatment through with a patient.

However, the flipside of this is you can make a very big difference in the lives of families dealing with intensive care needs of their loved ones. Your calmness and ability can put their fears at rest as well as the patient’s and having less fear means less stress, which ultimately means more healing.