Surviving the ICU: A Toolkit for the Critical Care Nurse

Have you started an RN role in the ICU setting and are struggling to remember why you started? Maybe you have been doing this for a while and are feeling burned-out, are close to, or just want to know what to do to prevent it. This tool kit is for you. Operating in the critical care nursing role can be full of excitement and wonder, with its fair share of frustration and hurt. There are so many achievements to attain, many complex situations to encounter, and opportunities to grow and learn. This book is a useful tool kit that can be adapted in any ICU setting, serving as a guide with survival tactics that are simple and have been used in real-world ICU environments.

It is not easy to stay afloat or even just survive in the ICU, especially within the chaos of what the world is facing right now as many encounter complex diagnoses and suffer from illnesses not foreseen before now. From wherever you are sitting today, take a moment to reflect on what makes you a nurse, a great nurse, and think of what it has taken for you to get to this moment. This tool kit will equip you to maintain momentum in your journey and be the best you have been made to be. We are all in this together and, take it from a fellow CVICU nurse, it takes heart to stay in the game and keep doing what we have been created to do. Let these words impart strength, joy, grace, and encouragement for your journey to stay the course and also give yourself room to breathe and recover as you keep going.