Characteristics Of An Intensive Care Nurse

An intensive care nurse is one who is licensed and has a big responsibility of ensuring that the patient receives the required optimal care to recover well and in time. They have to ensure that the critically ill patient is brought back to health. A critically ill patient is one who is in a life-threatening situation. Such patients are very weak and sometimes the slightest change in environment or the situation can make him or her vulnerable.

By a study done in 2004 by the Department of Health and Human Services, in the number of nurses who are registered, the number of intensive care nurses was 503,124. Out of this number, about 229,914 have to spend half of their time in an Intensive Care Unit or ICU. Therefore, out of the total population of nurses in the US, according to this study, critical care nurses account for 37 percent. These intensive care nurses may work either in general ICUs, pediatric ICUs, neonatal ICUs, cardiac care units, emergency departments, nursing schools, home healthcare and so on.

These critical care nurses have been trained and have a vast knowledge to handle unforeseen situations. The concept of managed care becoming popular and the subsequent shifting of patients also means that these nurses have to take care of patients who have become more ill than before.

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