Have you considered a career in nursing? If so, you may be contemplating the various specializations within nursing. What about the intensive care unit and the emergency room? What are the differences between jobs in ICU and ER for nursing? Let’s take a closer look at what to expect from these roles.
Intensive Care Unit and the Emergency Room
Two of the departments within any hospital are the ICU and ER. An ER, short for emergency room, is where people will arrive with immediate needs or where the Ambulance will deliver patients after calls or accidents. The department is fast-paced, and triage needs to happen to ensure the most critical cases are seen first. The intensive care unit is a place for acute patients who need additional care, such as after surgery or trauma. Both units require specialized nursing care.
What Does an ER Nurse Do?
An ER nurse is an RN who treats patients who come into the emergency room. An ER nurse can see countless cases in any given shift and must be able to triage and assess quickly to ensure proper and timely care. They may need to perform life-saving measures before treating underlying causes. An ER nurse needs to be quick on their feet and think fast. Communication skills are paramount for the rest of the medical team and the patient and their family.
What Does an ICU Nurse Do?
The ICU is a much more structured and controlled environment than the ER. While life-saving measures may need to be taken, most of the work is to maintain someone’s status to help them leave the ICU and on the road to recovery. In some cases, the ICU is also the place for end-of-life patients. Empathy is crucial for nurses in the ICU.
Main Differences Between ICU and ER Nurse Jobs
There are some critical differences between ICU and ER nurse jobs. The most obvious is the chaos. ER nurses thrive in a chaotic environment while the ICU needs to be controlled. ICU nurses are meticulously organized, while organizing can be complex for an ER nurse since things are shifting minute by minute. Everything in the ER is done with urgency, while there can be planning for care in the ICU. That means the personality is often very different between those who thrive in ER settings versus the ICU.
Are you looking for an ICU or ER nursing job? Contact Fortus Healthcare Resources today.
