Soon-to-be new grad here. I am torn between which specialty to start in. I always thought I wanted to do OR and still am interested but I have found recently that I really enjoy ICU nursing. I also anticipate becoming an advanced practice nurse or NP
I have loved the OR for 20 years! ICU experience is an excellent background for any advanced practice nurse, especially nurse anesthetist(CRNA).
ICU. If you are planning on career advancement to other positions. Opens the door to so much.
I definitely recommend ICU. OR nurses have very limited practice unless you want to be advanced in OR. General ICU knowledge is awesome wherever you want to go.
If you want to go the advance practice route you can always start in ICU to get experience to become a CRNA
I would honestly say do ICU as your first step in your nursing career because it’s truly closer to “real” nursing especially if you do Medical Surgical ICU. You learn your important critical care thinking process and also will gain your “sixth” sense. OR nursing is very different. You help set up a room for surgery, assist when needed, circulate if it’s a long case and do the documentation of case such as pre during and post procedure count and also time out. OR nurses are also tasked to making sure all documentation is in place for consents before the cases can preceded. Your Anesthesia team does all the monitoring of the patient and listing drugs and blood products given. One difference is that GI lab nurses do have a more hands on, almost being a Surgeon second hand besides surgical tech. If your even thinking of pursuing an advance degree such as CRNA or ARNP your going to need to have honed this critical care skill and gain that six sense. Best of luck to you when done. And please, for this more seasoned nurse sanity, do your degree after at least 2 yrs of working. Because you will be in learning mood for at least first 6 months so 1 year in ICU is not truly enough in mind for someone who wants to do NP or CRNA. I have seen the after affects of what can happen when something goes wrong for a patient. And some of those events could have been easily avoided with more experience.
I started in OR and moved to ICU after a short stint in PACU. The luxury of nursing is you can do them ALL.. I still scrub and circulate as a PRN and I work in adult and peds CVICU. Occasionally I float to PACU or SDS. I say start with what you’re passionate about and then branch out.
I’m an old school 37 year veteran
I still think new nurses should do a year in Med/surg or tele. I use my Med surg skills every shift in the ER when I have admitted patients waiting on beds. I also think it’s important to understand what goes on on the floors so you can plan your care knowing what the patient will experience next.
Highly recommend going the ICU route if you are planning on advanced practice in the future. ED and ICU are excellent places to get intensive experience for advanced practice although other areas are good as well they just have some unique opportunities to see and do things other nursing areas do not have. The OR has patients who are not awake for most of the interaction and the nursing role is very different.
The best thing about nursing is the incredible variety of jobs and how if one thing doesn't suit you, find a different position! Best of luck to you!
Christie Rosheim FNP-C
I would recommend you try y do Psychiatric Nursing. Don't just push Rxs but be the one who they come to. You can OR someones Psyche and ICU them towards discharged.
