Critical Care Nurses
Provide specialized nursing care for patients in critical or coronary care units.
Sample of reported job titles:
Certified Critical Care Nurse, Critical Care Nurse Practitioner, Critical Care Registered Nurse (CCRN), ICU Critical Care NP (Intensive Care Unit Critical Care Nurse Practitioner), ICU Nurse (Intensive Care Unit Nurse), Intensive Care Unit Registered Nurse (ICU RN), Newborn ICU RN (Newborn Intensive Care Unit Registered Nurse), Nurse, Pediatric Critical Care Nurse Practitioner, Staff Nurse
Occupation-Specific Information
Tasks
- Identify patients' age-specific needs and alter care plans as necessary to meet those needs.
- Provide post-mortem care.
- Evaluate patients' vital signs or laboratory data to determine emergency intervention needs.
- Perform approved therapeutic or diagnostic procedures, based upon patients' clinical status.
- Administer blood and blood products, monitoring patients for signs and symptoms related to transfusion reactions.
Technology Skills
- Cloud-based data access and sharing software:Google Drive,Microsoft SharePoint
- Human resources software:Oracle Taleo
- Information retrieval or search software:American Association of Critical Care Nurses AACN Medicopeia,PEPID RN Critical Care RNCC
- Internet browser software:Web browser software
- Medical software:Allscripts Professional EHR,Amkai AmkaiCharts,Bizmatics PrognoCIS EMR,Cerner Millennium,ChartWare EMR,e-MDs software,eClinicalWorks EHR software,Epic Systems,GE Healthcare Centricity EMR,MEDITECH Healthcare Information System HCIS,MEDITECH software,Medscribbler Enterprise,MicroFour PracticeStudio.NET EMR,NextGen Healthcare Information Systems EMR,SOAPware EMR,StatCom Patient Flow Logistics Enterprise Suite,SynaMed EMR,Texas Medical Software SpringCharts EMR
Occupational Requirements
Work Activities
- Assisting and Caring for Others:Providing personal assistance, medical attention, emotional support, or other personal care to others such as coworkers, customers, or patients.
- Getting Information:Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources.
- Making Decisions and Solving Problems:Analyzing information and evaluating results to choose the best solution and solve problems.
- Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events:Identifying information by categorizing, estimating, recognizing differences or similarities, and detecting changes in circumstances or events.
- Updating and Using Relevant Knowledge:Keeping up-to-date technically and applying new knowledge to your job.
Detailed Work Activities
- Administer blood or other fluids intravenously.
- Administer intravenous medications.
- Administer non-intravenous medications.
- Analyze test data or images to inform diagnosis or treatment.
- Assess patient work, living, or social environments.
Work Context
- Face-to-Face Discussions:100% responded"Every day"
- Exposed to Disease or Infections:100% responded"Every day"
- Telephone:96% responded"Every day"
- Indoors, Environmentally Controlled:96% responded"Every day"
- Consequence of Error:89% responded"Extremely serious"
Worker Requirements
Skills
- Monitoring:Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- 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.
- Critical Thinking:Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Reading Comprehension:Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Service Orientation:Actively looking for ways to help people.
Knowledge
- Medicine and Dentistry:Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
- Customer and Personal Service:Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
- English Language:Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
- Psychology:Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
- Biology:Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
Education
How much education does a new hire need to perform a job in this occupation? Respondents said:
- 50%Bachelor's Degree
- 36%Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree)
- 11%Master's Degree
Worker Characteristics
Abilities
- Oral Comprehension:The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Problem Sensitivity:The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
- Deductive Reasoning:The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Inductive Reasoning:The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Oral Expression:The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
Interests
- Social:Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.
- Investigative:Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.
- Realistic:Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.
Work Values
- Relationships:Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to provide service to others and work with co-workers in a friendly non-competitive environment. Corresponding needs are Co-workers, Moral Values and Social Service.
- Support:Occupations that satisfy this work value offer supportive management that stands behind employees. Corresponding needs are Company Policies, Supervision: Human Relations and Supervision: Technical.
- Achievement:Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment. Corresponding needs are Ability Utilization and Achievement.
Work Styles
- Attention to Detail:Job requires being careful about detail and thorough in completing work tasks.
- Integrity:Job requires being honest and ethical.
- Dependability:Job requires being reliable, responsible, and dependable, and fulfilling obligations.
- Stress Tolerance:Job requires accepting criticism and dealing calmly and effectively with high-stress situations.
- Concern for Others:Job requires being sensitive to others' needs and feelings and being understanding and helpful on the job.
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