A new grad nurse practitioner with previous ICU experience starting as an ICU NP. I got 5 tips for ya.
I might know a thing or two about this one i there’s a lot of things that i wish someone would have warned me about when i made that transition from the icu bedside nurse to the icu nurse practitioner i’m gonna just whittle it down to five quick things i thought about when i when i read this question number one you don’t know jack just accept that you don’t
Know jack you might know a couple things about critical care nursing but you don’t know jack about being a critical care nurse practitioner you have two ears and one mouth listen twice as much as you talk and that’s just that’s not just with your physician and provider colleagues that’s also with your nursing staff number two segue from number one you’re gonna be
Wrong a lot a lot did i mention a lot a lot you’re gonna be wrong quite a bit you should get used to being wrong and and i it sounds hilarious it sounds simple but as a as a seasoned icu nurse you’re actually gonna have a really hard time with being wrong in fact you’re gonna battle with that inside of your brain inside of your ego quite a bit so try and figure
Out how to navigate through the idea of being wrong didn’t you know i’m you’re probably laughing at me and laughing at yourself going yeah i know i’m gonna be oh no you really don’t it is such a huge blast to your ego it has nothing to do with me being a guy versus a girl trust me because i’ve heard this from many new providers in the icu being wrong more than
You’re right just knocks you down to a new level that you had nixed number three the biggest challenge for many nurses in your position is going from the expert role to the novice role in a matter of weeks or months this question was asked by a seasoned icu nurse who is now an icu nurse practitioner you just went from being an expert in your field at your moment
In time in your role to being the clueless deer-in-headlights individual think about a first blitz second when you were at work nothing really fazed you like it was new to you like it was foreign to you most individuals came to you because they had questions because they needed help because they had something that didn’t make sense they were seeking your advice
They wanted your expert tutelage because you’ve been doing this a hot minute now you’re the novice who is completely clueless and you’re out asking everybody for help and it’s a really hard role transition and not many mps in your position are willing to recognize that if you can muster up the ability to recognize that you are a novice and that you’re going to
Embrace that role you just might have a chance number four never forget where you came from i don’t care how hard you worked how long it’s taking you to be an np please don’t forget where you came from please never forget what it was like to be the bedside nurse an example is you know very well that your patient has a foley catheter and that it’s going to brewer
It’s a breeding ground for a possible infection and the sooner you have to foley out the better now if you’re also diary seeing your patient even though both those things are important you should take into consideration of diary cing and then taking the foley out and your laughing at me as if you look come on shauna fish oh come on you know i’m gonna remember
That no you’re not gonna remember it because you’re gonna be so focused on being the new person and so focused on being paranoid about diary singh your patient and so focused on making sure your patient doesn’t get a cauti because cody’s cost thousands upon thousands of dollars and it’s part of a qi initiative yet you’re gonna have to make absolutely sure that
You remember whatever your direction is and the orders that you’re placing that that bedside nurse has to carry them out and that you were that bedside nurse so do your best to remind yourself of what that was like and last but not least and here’s this is difficult to wrap your brain around because you’re so focused on learning your new job and you’re so focused
On proving yourself you’re so focused on wanting to be right and you’re so focused on just exercising your new mental muscles that it’s not it you got to remember it’s not about you it’s not about the bedside nurse it’s not about the doc it’s not about the specialist intensivist surgeon anesthesiologist not about the respiratory therapist it’s not about who’s
The smartest person in the room this is about the patient and if you can focus on that every day with every decision you make you’re gonna make life a whole lot easier i did not for the first year maybe two years i was always focused on trying to be the best i could be and i was focused on a lot of me and a lot of perfection and proving myself proving myself is
Such a huge thing when i first started this job and i rubbed a lot of people the wrong way and i hated being wrong i would rather be right than be correct if that makes any sense i wanted to make sure that i made the right decision but it was my decision not somebody else who was part of the team instead of doing whatever was best for the patient and once again
This sounds so simplistic and so obvious but you will get lost in the mix please try and remember if you can focus your efforts on remembering that this is about the patient that first year as a new icu np is going to go a lot smoother than it did for me you
Transcribed from video
5 tips for the new nurse practitioner with previous ICU nurse experience By Sean P Dent