A Week in ICU

Being a new grad, I have to "precept" with an experienced nurse for a few months. I will be going all over the hospital eventually, so I have to train on each floor/unit. I have just begun my three week session in Medical/Neuro ICU. I spent three days there this week.

There are a few things that I have learned about ICU right off the bat:

1. Everyone has liquid stool and it is constantly coming out. Bed sheets need to be changed A LOT
2. You want your patients sedated, and if they aren't sedated enough, give them a bolus of Diprovan
3. There is never just one problem you are dealing with. These patients are having MULTI system issues, and it seems to go on forever
4. A patient can lay there intubated and comatose for days with little changes and few new orders written. It seems that small changed take a REALLY long time

I always said I wanted to be an ICU nurse. I still might, but so far I am not too sure. First of all its incredibly overwhelming. These are SICK people. I mean SICK. Most are in a drug induced coma because they are intubated (on a ventilator). Some are on constant dialysis. Most have at least 3 drips going at once, tons of lines, and machines beeping at you. Anything can go wrong at any time and the nurse must be prepared to know what to do. An ICU is not for the weak nurse. Most ICU nurses have very strong personalities and don't take shit from anyone, including the physicians. They are very protective of their patients. That is a good thing.

We will see what happens over the next couple weeks. I will repost and let you know how I am progressing. I am just really glad to have 3 days off to recoop.