ICU Nurse Summary

Intro
Jill is a highly intelligent experienced med-surg nurse looking to expanded her nursing abilities by switching to a more demanding area. She is very excited and optimistic about her new career in the ICU. Jill quickly begins to question her decision about her new field when she starts to experience slight hostility from her new colleagues.
Underlying causes
Jill is new to the ICU unit. This places stress on the more experienced nurses to take time out of their busy schedule to teach Jill ICU patient care and procedures. The frustration that the ICU nurses feel is warranted to an extent, due to the fact that the ICU is for the most acutely ill patients, those who are unstable, in critical condition and needing very intensive nursing care

This often means that there is little to no time to teach or nurture the new nurses to the unit. Jill is faced with the realization that her new colleagues don’t have the time or means to train her without safety stepping away from their patients. The hospital failed Jill by not having a proper program to integrate the employee into the new unit. By using her chain of command, Jill could ask to shadow an experienced ICU nurse, rather than starting out with her own patients and not knowing the proper care or protocols of the new

Providing improper care goes against the ethics of nursing. By Jill being unprepared and improperly trained she is causing more harm than good. This is not good for anyone including the patient, Jill, the unit or the hospital. More and more nurses are being named in malpractice lawsuits and this is preventable by educating and informing nurses (Neal-Boylan, Leslie. 2013). It’s not if it’s only a matter of time before Jill hurts someone. Unintentional failure to adhere to a protocol that is unknown is not an excuse and ultimately ends up the nurses