Intensive care nurse

By ROBIN MARTIN

Name: Louise Wilson

Age: 30

Position: Intensive care nurse

Qualifications: Bachelor of health science, nursing; registered comprehensive nurse, post-grad Certificate Critical Care Nursing.

Employer: Auckland District Health Board.


Potential employment includes hospitals, community-based nursing, Plunket, GPs, cruise ships, ski fields, film sets and nursing agencies.

Pay: $35,000 to $45,000

Career prospects: Opportunities to specialise in different areas of nursing (intensive care, emergency, theatre etc). Possibilities to become a charge nurse, nurse educator, nurse practitioner or move into nurse management.

Q. What do intensive care nurses do?

A. We are responsible for all the different aspects of care for patients and dealing with their family.

We liaise with the doctor and in intensive care we have to be quite specialised because there is a lot of high-tech equipment.

We provide an important line of communication between the patient, family and the doctor. We act as an advocate for our patients.

Q. Describe an average day.

A. The first thing that happens when I start a shift [at 7am or 7pm] is that I'm assigned a single patient and then given a handover from the nurse who has been taking care of the patient.

This takes about half an hour and includes a full rundown on the patient's condition, any changes that occurred on the previous shift and the situation with the patient's family. Intensive care can be very distressing for families and they are a high priority for us.

Next I check that all the equipment is working properly, the oxygen and so on are working and everything is ready in case of an emergency.

Then I make a head-to-toe assessment of the patient and begin to plan the day, including turning, suction, organising blood tests and medication as per the doctor's instructions. We also usually have to organise a chest x-ray each morning.

Between 8.30am and 9.10am the doctors do their rounds and you discuss the plan for the day, including any changes and unusual tasks like getting the patient ready for theatre.

Q. Why did you choose nursing?

A. There's a history of nursing in my family and I enjoy science and working with people so it was quite a natural choice for me.

Q. What do you consider a success in your work?

A. A success is when you feel that you've done your job well whether there is a good outcome or not.

In intensive care some patients don't make it, so knowing that I've done my job really well and the whole team has come together for the patient and their family is a success.

Making sure that we've done everything we can to make a patient comfortable in their last few hours is important.

Q. What's the best part of the job?

A. Helping people is really rewarding, when you are able to assist a patient and their family through a crisis, whether there's a good or bad outcome, it's a positive feeling. The human interaction is very rewarding.

Having someone come into the department ill, get discharged and come back and say hi is great.

It's a fantastic career if you want to work overseas or travel. If you don't like a particular area you can change speciality. You can leave the job and come back to it easily enough. You can work part-time, which is excellent for mothers.

Q. Worst part of the job?

A. Dealing with death and grief. We have to cope with families in a very distressful situation.

The shift work.

Q. What kind of person makes a good nurse?

A. Someone, who's able to deal with emotional situations, is level-headed and able to work well in a stressful environment and stay calm while being caring and empathetic to their patients and their families. And they have to work well in a multidiscipline team.

Q. What tips for those considering nursing?

A. Think about whether you are able to cope with the shift work and have a caring nature.

It's good if you have a background in the sciences and are a good communicator, listener.

If you're not sure about nursing, doing some work in rest-homes or other care-giving environment could be a good idea before undertaking nurse training.