Occupation Description Provide advanced nursing care for patients in critical or coronary care units.
Critical Care Nurse Responsibilities
- Monitor patients’ fluid intake and output to detect emerging problems, such as fluid and electrolyte imbalances.
- Prioritize nursing care for assigned critically ill patients, based on assessment data or identified needs.
- Document patients’ treatment plans, interventions, outcomes, or plan revisions.
- Identify patients’ age-specific needs and alter care plans as necessary to meet those needs.
- Identify patients at risk of complications due to nutritional status.
- Provide post-mortem care.
Things a Critical Care Nurse Should Know How to Do
These are the skills Critical Care Nurses say are the most useful in their careers:
Active Listening: Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
Service Orientation: Actively looking for ways to help people.
Monitoring: Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
Reading Comprehension: Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
Speaking: Talking to others to convey information effectively.
Social Perceptiveness: Being aware of others’ reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
Other Critical Care Nurse Job Titles
- Progressive Care Nurse
- ICU Staff Nurse (Intensive Care Unit Staff Nurse)
- Critical Care Nurse Practitioner
- Staff Nurse, ICU Resource Team (Staff Nurse, Intensive Care Unit Resource Team)
Tools & Technologies Used by Critical Care Nurses
- Microsoft Office
- Word processing software
- Microsoft SharePoint
- MEDITECH software
- Google Drive
- Epic Systems
- Oracle Taleo
- GE Healthcare Centricity EMR
- eClinicalWorks
- e-MDs software
- Allscripts Professional EHR
- SOAPware EMR
- ChartWare EMR
- SynaMed EMR
- Texas Medical Software SpringCharts EMR
- StatCom Patient Flow Logistics Enterprise Suite