The Unit

 My first week working in the ICU went great! Was it scary intimidating? Of course! Did I know anything? No well not really lol and that is OKAY! I have an amazing preceptor who is a great teacher and most importantly is impatient with me! My first day consisted mainly of learning the flow of things in the unit and how the day is run from 0700-1900... EKG prints, bedside report, assessment, medications, chart, rounds (with the Dr.'s or Surgeons), RE-assessment, other medications...you get the idea! I did administer medications, injections, hang tubing and started an IV. Now every now and then you can throw in an unexpected CODE BLUE aka "cardiac arrest/emergency" being called overhead, in which we have to respond to, but I don't respond to those til much further down the line after becoming ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support) certified and gaining more experience but there you have it!! There is such a STEEP learning-curve in critical care. It really is a different language of nursing that requires lots of critical thinking and detailed assessments. This week I also attended new grad orientation, which was two days following my first day on the unit, which basically was a welcome to the hospital, these resources are available to you and this is how we do things yada-yada-blah. I'd like to depict my first week of being a new nurse in the form of gifs:

                           "How I looked walking into the ICU 
                                    on my first day"

Lesson learned: Scissors? CHECK! 

Stethoscope? CHECK! No lesson learned here!! 

Just excited I'm FINALLY starting my career and 

journey as a new ICU nurse! 

"How I looked signing my 2 year critical care new graduate residency contract"

Lesson learned: Easy lesson here..  

Don't break them or you'll PAY...

big time!

"Welcome to the ICU!"

Lesson Learned: We take care of sick 

patients..really.. sick patients!

   

"When my preceptor asks me a question and...

                ..my answer is completely wrong..         

 

..my face..

                  ..BUT..when I answer correctly!"

 

Lesson Learned: Be patient, you WON'T know it all 

starting out as a new grad RN..and you're not expected! 

What you can do is: learn, ask questions 

and learn some more!

"When there's family in the room and we're about to do a SBT on the patient...

...when they insist on staying..

...patient fails the SBT..

           ...family member's response after watching..

Lesson learned: Families don't understand how 

disturbing it is to see your loved on in distress until

after it occurs.. always, if possibe, have them exit the 

room if you know it is likely to upset them.

"Gowning up to walk into my isolation patients room and realizing I forgot something" 

Lesson learned: Work from clean to dirty, which means 

go into non-isolation rooms first and save the 

isolation rooms last.. and when you do, make sure you 

have everything you need BEFORE you fully gown up and enter.. 

if some items are questionable, leave them outside the room 

because once it's in..it's in to stay!

My "I didn't kill anyone today" dance!

                                Lesson learned: Overall, my first week was a success!
                                             Your day will not always go as planned..
                                              you will start off slow and task-oriented
                                           for the most part..BUT each day gets easier!

 (Disclaimer: The clinical suggestions, advice and recommendations described on sicunurse.blogspot.com are based on my personal opinions and are not medical advice. The content is for entertainment purposes only. I, surgicalnurse.blogspot.com, do not own, nor did I create any of the animations above. I did create the captions written above and below them, customizing them to my experiences along with learning tips I have found helpful in my practice).