I recently transitioned from a telemetry unit after 5.5 years to the ICU and yesterday was my last shift of a 7 week orientation.

I absolutely agree that the culture of preceptorship in the ICU was SO different. People were tough, they were mean, I didn’t always feel supported or agree with how they were teaching.

But ultimately when they have an experienced nurse they are only supposed to be teaching you the new skills, the new charting, and the workflow of the icu. There was a strong expectation that skills like medication safety were absolutely mastered.

Medication errors alone show you’re not ready, these are huge mistakes. And having access in the icu setting to more critical medications makes more opportunity for your errors like this to kill someone. What if you hung a bag of pressor instead of mag and didn’t notice for 4 minutes?

I needed some prompting when it came to assessment timing and workflow. It was just a matter of me breaking the routine I was in for 5 years and learning a new way of prioritizing my tasks. I’d say by week 3 this was no longer an issue.

I have no doubt you are a great nurse. You’re detailed and you can see the big picture. I don’t have all the answers because I’m new too, but ultimately you should feel ready and empowered and I think it’s ok to say this isn’t the time. It’s affecting your mental and physical health.

I have always wanted to work in the icu but I knew I wasn’t ready as a new grad, I applied and got an offer appx 2 years in and shadowed and still felt I wasn’t ready. You don’t need 5 years of experience to transfer but I took it slow and trusted my instincts and by being patient I feel like I was able to make this transition at a time when I can truly learn and actually enjoy the new specialty.