Kristine Jamille R.

Pileo

BSN IV - C3

REACTION PAPER ON THE LIFE OF AN ICU NURSE

There are millions of individuals who get admitted to the ICUs annually. The Intensive
Care Unit (ICU), otherwise known as, “Critical Care Unit,” is a unit in the hospital where specially
trained nurses provide round-the-clock care and long-term therapy to critically ill patients.
Intensive care nurses provide care for the most vulnerable and severe patients in the hospital. This
means that every decision they make and action they take has the potential to influence patient
outcomes. Indeed, when you are an ICU nurse, you are highly trained to provide exceptional care
to your patients. But providing this type of nursing care as a critical care nurse is not easy. It entails
a wide range of tasks, and truly, a day on the job entails a wide range of responsibilities. Working
in an intensive care unit is a serious job that requires keen intellect, fast thinking, and a lot of time
and effort to master the advanced skills required to be able to deliver holistic and high quality
nursing care. ICU nurses should always be at the top of their game, hence, the reason why most
consider this job to be challenging.

Upon reading the transcript, I truly learned a lot about what it is like to be an ICU nurse.
Indeed, everything is fast paced. You are always busy, and simple things like bathing your patient
and administering medications already takes up most of your time. When you are an ICU nurse, it
practically means that you are always on the go. As mentioned by Sir Matthew in the transcript,
you have a lot of things to do like having multiple assessments during the day, documenting vital
signs, checking patient’s input and output, executing orders and implementing new ones if there
are any, making sure that procedures are performed correctly, and a lot more. Other than that, you
also collaborate with others in the healthcare team in order to make the best decisions for the
patient. When working as an ICU nurse, things are certainly happening one after the other. Some
might find this overwhelming, but some also consider this to be challenging and at the same time
rewarding.

My mom was an ICU nurse before and I could never forget how she would always share
to me how tiring her day was at work. She would sometimes also tell me that one of her patients
died and how heartbreaking it was for her. Indeed, being an ICU nurse is hard and is incredibly
challenging. Being an ICU nurse will not just tire you physically but will also take a mental and
an emotional toll on you. Intensive care units usually house patients who are generally very sick
and can deteriorate at any moment. Hence, in the intensive care unit, you are able to witness a lot
of deaths and they happen almost every day. As an ICU nurse, this is certainly by far the hardest
part of the job.

Indeed, not all heroes wear capes. Some of them are just in the hospital working in an
intensive or critical care unit.