INTENSIVE CARE NURSING

 Intensive care nursing or critical care nursing is the specialty within nursing which deals particularly with human responses to the life-threatening or serious problems. Intensive care nurses could be found working in a various types of specialties and environments, such as the intensive care units and emergency departments.

Many of the intensive care nurses in the United States are registered nurses. Because of the critical condition of the patient population the LVN’s/ LPN are rarely in the main care role in the intensive care units. But with proper experience and training LVN and LPNs could play an important role in offering excellent care for the unstable or critically ill patient. Nurses in the United States who would like to get certification in critical or intensive care nursing could do so through the national advisory board called as the American Association of Critical Care Nurses. This advisory board maintains and sets standards for the intensive care nurses. The certification given by this advisory board is known as the CCRN.  This does not stand for “Critical Care Registered Nurse'” as is commonly believed, however this is just a certification as an intensive care nurse for  neonatal, adult and pediatric populations.

Employment areas

Intensive care nurses work in various different fields with a varied patients. There are several intensive care nurses working in the hospitals in post-operative care, high dependency units and intensive care units. They also work on medical transport teams and medical evacuation teams. Apart from medical institutions and hospitals, intensive care nurses also work in other fields as well. There is a wide scope in this field of nursing and intensive care nurses are paid high salary packages than the other types of nurses. However, the salary packages would vary according to ones experiences, certificates and knowledge in the field of nursing.

Questionnaires

• What are the main roles of the intensive care nurses?
• Scope of Intensive care nurses?