How can I transition from M/S to ICU? It seems that ICUs will take a new grad easily but won’t take a MS nurse with years of experience.
Transferring within is usually a political issue. With the nursing shortage, they would rather keep the trained Ms nurse where she is. They hire new ones, train them, and then hope they will stay. Check with another hospital in your area, they may be more than happy to train you, since you will have more skills than the new grad. Also, you can "try" going through your staff development people and ask them for a transfer plan, where you work 2 days in med Surg and one in ICU to get the training. That would give them target date to acquire your replacement.
Probably doesn’t answer This Particular?, but Managed a Cardiac Surgery Department for >20 yrs. In my Experience, it was Harder to Train someone with Years of Cardiac Experience, then to take someone (Tech or RN), with No Experience. Those with Experience had Already Built in preconditions on how something should be done. Sometimes Subtle, sometimes Blatant. Would rather, “Mold” someone who is willing to learn. I have Hired RN’s w/experience though. They blended in, respectfully raised questions & offered Solutions Based on their Experience & that we had a Successful Program & worked out very well. Don’t come across as a “know it all”, cause of your experience. Promote your enthusiasm to be part of the ICU Team. Good Luck!
Hello! Some facilities may see M/S nurses as harder to train because you typically have a higher patient load. Personally I've trained a med surg nurse for critical care and she was awesome! If you don't have charge experience I would see about trying to expand on that so you can show ICU nurse managers that you can lead. Working in critical care requires you to be fully hands on and very detailed oriented, keep trying!
A new grad comes with no learned experience, no bad habits and nothing but textbook learning and the few clinical experiences they had throughout school. A M/S nurse comes with baggage they are set in their ways, their pts usually are not critical and there’s little urgency in the delivery of care. YOU have to sell yourself- your critical thinking skills: we’re there times a pt lab was off even barely but you felt something more was going on and that paid off, show how you prioritize your care: diabetic non healing, over otherwise surgical pt maybe try moving to a stepdown unit first for more experience then reapply for ICU
When I transitioned from M/S to UCI, I first moved to Telemetry then to ICU/CCU.
Make friends with ICU charge nurse and network in by letting them know if your interest!
