MICU Clinical Colleagues
The Medical Intensive Care Unit is moving to Tower 3 in July and doubling its bed count from 10 to 20. Preparations for this move and expansion started last year as Nurse Manager Maureen Curley, RN began hiring 40 additional nurses and lining up her veteran staff to serve as clinical colleagues and preceptors to lead, train and educate the recruits for 10 weeks of orientation.
“Our new nurses have been coming to the MICU from other BWH units, the float pool, other hospitals or fresh out of nursing school. The entire staff has made a commitment to welcoming and educating them, and they've done a tremendous job,” Curley said. “It has been and continues to be a real team effort.”
During the last several months, Betsy Kirrane, RN, has been sharing her 24 years experience as a critical care nurse with the newly hired nurses, orienting them to the unit, introducing them to critical care technology and equipment, and alerting them to some of the difficulties that come with end-of-life issues in the MICU.
“One of the biggest changes for some of our new nurses is dealing with end-of-life issues and helping families through this trying time. Effectively communicating with patients' families and offering the necessary level of support can be challenging,” Kirrane said.
Orientation begins with introductions to the unit staff and directions on where everything is. Then clinical colleagues like Kirrane and new MICU nurses like Andrea Camilleri, RN, who transferred to 9C from 14CD, a medical step-down unit, work side-by-side on each shift for 10 weeks. The clinical colleagues intuitively allow the new nurses to progress by increasing their role in decision making and adding to their responsibility.
During weeks six and seven, new nurses “really begin to understand everything,” said Kirrane. That's when both the clinical colleagues and new MICU nurses see an increased level of readiness.
“Because of the support and guidance we receive from day one, we develop the necessary competence level and skill set to perform our critical roles at the bedside,” Camilleri said.