Why I Want To Become A Critical Care Nurse

Thousands of people are involved in accidents every day which puts them in critical condition causing them to be in need of a critical care nurse. The medical field is the career I’m choosing, specifically the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). They deal with people who have had an accident and are now in a life-threatening situation. Many critical care nurses are responsible for making sure that their patients and their patients’ family in the ICU are properly taken care of. There is many reasons why I have chosen this particular career, but the primary reason why I’m extremely interested with the medical field department is due to the fact that I appreciate the personal interactions with people, and helping to educate them on a healthier lifestyle.
A personal bonus to this career is everyday you show up to work you have the opportunity to save someone’s life, nurse them back to health, and make a difference.
Not to mention you also create a special bond with each of your patients because over the days they are in the Intensive Care Unit you get to know more about them and you gain their respect and their trust. In the medical field there are many different departments which all have a variety of jobs with numerous amounts of medical staff. “According to the “Registered Nurse Population” study conducted in March 2004 by the Department of Health and Human Services, there are 503,124 nurses in the U.S. who care for critically ill patients in a hospital setting” (American Association of Critical Care Nurses). Most jobs that are similar to the Intensive Care Unit are found in a hospital, because the ICU is where patients go when they are in critical condition, which is most likely to be located in a hospital with numerous amounts of doctors, and specialists to treat their medical conditions.
With this career I can expect to make a minumum of $45,040, an average of $65,470, and finally the maxium amount I could make with this career is $94,720 (Bureau of Labor Statistics). Some expenses I will have to meet with this career choice is possible classes on learning new technology that will be provided in the Intensive Care Unit. Some related career fields that are complementary to the one I have selected would be a General Pediatrician and a Physician Assistant. A General Pediatrician’s specialty is treating children. “Treat children who have minor illnesses, acute and chronic health problems, and growth and development concerns” (O* Net Online). On the other hand we have a Physician Assistant whose job is to see patients on behalf of the physician. A physician assistant’s main responsibility is to get information about patients from the patient, supervise the treatments the patients are receiving, and dictating what medication they should obtain (O* Net Online). Both these occupations are similar to the career i have chosen because they both are in a hospital setting, and are taking care of patients. Although the main priority of the Intensive Care Unit is to nurse the patients back to health, there is more to it.
According to Bureau of Labor Statistics critical care nurses have many general duties, which include note the patient's’ medical history, medicine, input treatments and medications they should be on, monitor patients as well as all the IV’s and machines they are hooked up to. On the other hand critical care nurses have more specific duties which consist of paying attention to the medication that the patients are using and the outcome of treatment. In addition to that they also have to record the patient’s behavior, and help families understand the recovery process and the physical fitness they need to be doing daily, along with this there is many more specific duties a critical care nurse has to do throughout his/her shift (Careeronestop). The hours a critical care nurse can work all depends on where they work, what shift they have, how many shifts they work and whether or not they chose to work a double shift or not. The qualifications of workers in the Intensive Care Unit can be both male or female. In order to be qualified to be a critical care nurse you have to be physically healthy and fit, the reason being of this is because you will need to be able to get to patients quickly and transport them to where they need to be in a certain amount of time. However your personality needs to be great, when you are working with people who are ill, you need to have
a good attitude all the time with them and be a personable person.