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Job Summary
The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Registered Nurse (RN) practices independently to deliver highly complex, specialized, and routine critical care to patients with life-threatening medical conditions. Utilizing the nursing process and clinical expertise, the ICU RN monitors complex health statuses, coordinates rapid interventions, handles unpredictable clinical contingencies, and delegates tasks appropriately to optimize patient safety and healthcare outcomes.
Key Responsibilities
- Critical Care Nursing: Provides direct patient care to high-acuity assignments in accordance with the ANA Scope and Standards of Practice and critical care guidelines.
- Continuous Assessment: Performs highly detailed, comprehensive physical and psychosocial assessments of complex, unstable patients, communicating critical changes immediately to the healthcare team.
- Advanced Order & Medication Processing: Expertly processes, validates, and updates complex medical orders. Administers medications (including titrating critical care drips), manages IV/central lines, and provides specialized clinical treatments.
- Patient Flow & Throughput: Anticipates and manages critical care admissions, transfers, and complex discharge planning to maximize safe unit patient flow.
- Electronic Health Documentation: Maintains rigorous, real-time electronic documentation of patient vitals, clinical symptoms, standing orders, and interventions.
- Education & Advocacy: Evaluates complex health learning needs to guide and support patients and their family members through stressful medical situations and post-discharge expectations.
- Unit Leadership: Plans and directs overall nursing functions during assigned shifts, providing mentorship, maintaining supply stewardship, and ensuring compliance with industry ethics and regulations.
Technical & Core Competencies
- Critical Care Equipment Mastery: Proficient in setting up, maintaining, and troubleshooting complex diagnostic tools, monitoring systems, and advanced medical equipment common to intensive care environments.
- Chart Reading & Interpretation: Skilled in reading, validating, and cross-checking intricate patient charts for accuracy, swiftly identifying unexpected values or clinical omissions.
- Proactive Patient Safety: Utilizes structured tracking systems to document real-time near-misses; immediately investigates safety anomalies and acts decisively to mitigate risks of self-harm or harm to others.
- Quality Improvement: Incorporates evidence-based practices and nursing research into daily operations to continuously enhance critical care clinical standards.
Job Requirements & Qualifications
Education & Licensure
- Degree: Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) required; Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) strongly preferred.
- Licensure: Active Registered Nurse (RN) license in the State of Texas or an active multi-state Compact RN license.
Required Certifications (American Heart Association)
- BLS: Basic Life Support (Required)
- ACLS: Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (Required)
- PALS: Pediatric Advanced Life Support (Preferred / Optional)
Experience
- Minimum Experience: 12 months of independent nursing experience in an acute care hospital environment.
- Preferred Specialty: Explicit experience working within an Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Critical Care Unit (CCU), or high-acuity step-down environment.
Physical Requirements & Working Conditions
- Environment: Fast-paced, high-stress critical care hospital environment. Strict adherence to infection control, security protocols, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) donning, and the use of power-operated lifting devices is mandatory.
- Physical Demands: Active floor duties including prolonged walking/standing, reaching, bending, stooping, crouching, kneeling, twisting, pushing/pulling, and lifting/carrying patients or critical life-support apparatus.
- Sensory Acuity: Requires a minimum visual acuity of 20/40, conversational hearing, color perception, and fluent spoken/written English comprehension.