I graduated in 2010 with a BScN and knew within 6 months of feeling like an underappreciated, stressed out waitress that the medical floor was not for me. (Mad respect to my brothers and sisters on the floors. Keep calm and carry on!) After moving across the country, a brief stint in endoscopy (you have an orifice, we’ll fill it!) and hospice palliative care, I scored a permanent full-time position in a major Canadian Med/Surg ICU.
It is often said that 20-30 years ago, most patients on the average medicine floor would have been in the ICU, and the average ICU patient would have been dead. I care for the sickest of the sick. People requiring 1:1 or even 2:1 nursing care, intubation and mechanical ventilation to maintain an airway and respiration, pressors and inotropes to maintain a blood pressure, amongst a myriad of other radical and extreme technologies and medications to keep you alive long enough for your body to heal itself from whatever major trauma or illness it is experiencing.
Now, I don’t profess to be a critical care expert. In fact, I’m still a fledgling nurse. However, I think reflection helps us learn and create connections so after much self-debate and intention-searching I have decided to give this a shot. Working in the ICU is simultaneously the most rewarding/upsetting/shocking/interesting job a person could have, and in order to process it all I figured why not share it with those who may find it as interesting as I do!
I See You, RN 