What is an ICU nurse?
ICU nursing means Intensive Care Unit nursing, which is the nurse who works in the Intensive Care unit of the hospital or ICU. The intensive Care unit is the section in the hospital where they treat severely ill patients.
What do ICU nurses do?
ICU nurses are highly trained healthcare professionals who care for patients with life-threatening conditions in the ICU. They make sure that these patients are taken care of. They assess their patients, administer their medicines, monitor them, and respond to emergencies. Patients in ICU are often ventilated or intubated, so ICU nurses ensure they are given basic care.
How to become An ICU nurse or critical care nurse?
An ICU nurse or critical care nurse works in highly intensive environments. The following requirements are important for becoming a critical care nurse:
- Education: Getting a nursing degree such as a BSN or ADN.
- License: Pass the NCLEX-RN exam to become a licensed registered nurse.
- Experience: At least one to two years of experience is required to work in healthcare environments.
- Certification: To become a critical care nurse, get additional certifications, such as a CCRN (critical care registered nurse).
- Compact license: apply for a compact license if you want to become a travel critical care nurse. This license will help you to work in multiple states as an ICU nurse without applying for multiple licenses to work in different states of the US.
ICU nurse years of school
We can break down the ICU nurse years of school into the following:
BSN (Bachelor of Science in Nursing) = 4 years
ADN (associate degree in nursing) = 2 years
Experience = 2 years
So, it takes 5 to 6 years to become a successful intensive care unit nurse or an ICU nurse.
Skills of an ICU nurse or Critical care nurse
ICU nursing requires special skills. If you are a registered nurse who wants to become a critical care nurse, you should develop the following ICU nurse skills to become successful in your career as an ICU nurse.
Advanced clinical abilities in ICU nursing
- Patient assessment: In ICU nursing, building advanced skills and abilities is important. As we all know, the role of an ICU nurse is to take care of critically ill patients. It’s important that critical care nurses continuously monitor their patients. They should be skilled to see any slight change in their patient’s condition.
- Managing ventilators: Critical care nurses should have the skill to work with ventilators. They should be able to identify any problem with the ventilators and know how to correct them. ICU nurses are also involved in the weaning process, meaning they should know how to control ventilators for their patients so that they can breathe on their own with time.
- Administer medications: Most of the ICU patients are on IV. In ICU nursing they must have the skill of calculating precise dosage and look for any side effects.
- Wound care: Another skill of an ICU nurse is wound care. They should know how to prevent wounds from getting infection.
Critical thinking in emergencies
Other important ICU nursing skills are critical thinking and problem-solving. ICU nurses must possess this ability. They work in stressful environments with patients facing life-and-death situations. Here, critical thinking comes in handy to save their patient’s life.
Technical skills
ICU nurse skills also include proficiency in technical skills. Intensive care nurses should be able to use advanced medical equipment such as dialysis machines, EHR systems, ventilators, etc.
Communication skills and Teamwork
Another ICU nurse quality is communication skills. They should be able to communicate with the patient’s family and update them about their health. Intensive care unit nurses should know how to communicate with other healthcare professionals to give the best possible care to the patient. Patient safety depends on communication skills and teamwork to provide the best care.
Multitasking
ICU skills also mean multitasking. It is important for the ICU nurse to know how to be organized and do multiple things simultaneously. Their environment is very intense, so there is no chance of medical errors. Study shows that medical errors are ranked as the third major cause of death.
Emotional endurance and self-care
One of the skills of an ICU nurse is emotional endurance. This can not be thought of but is learned through experience. ICU nurses work in stressful environments every single day, dealing with seriously ill patients. They should know how to manage their emotional and physical stress. During these situations, self-care is really important. They should focus on themselves to be mentally and physically fit for challenging situations. Self-care involves meditation, exercise, spending time with family and friends, going to the spa, etc.
ICU nurse qualities
Some of ICU nurse personality traits or ICU nursing qualities are:
- Problem-solving
- Critical thinking
- Diligence.
- Teamwork
- Communication
- Assessment skills
- Leadership
- Time management
Is ICU nursing hard?
No doubt, intensive care unit nurses work in challenging environments. They deal with patients who are seriously ill. Their job as ICU nurses is very demanding, both physically and mentally. If you are thinking of becoming a critical care nurse, following the above nursing skills is important to become the most successful nurse in an ICU.
Conclusion:
To become a successful ICU nurse, having special skills is important to succeed in your career. These skills include technical, communication, critical thinking, problem-solving, and working in highly stressful environments.
