Critical Care Nurse – Career and Education Profile

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If you enjoy high-pressure situations, critical care nursing might be for you. In this field, you’ll work with the sickest and most unstable patients to provide care.

Job Responsibilities

Critical care nurses work with patients who need immediate attention and continual care. Most commonly, critical care nurses work in emergency rooms and intensive care units at medical facilities, where your tasks will include recording vital signs, administering emergency care, monitoring patient progress, and keeping families updated. Critical care nurses have to be good at identifying which problems are most pressing to best provide care that will keep a patient alive. In this field, you’ll also often simply serve as an extra pair of hands for doctors who are treating patients.

Salary and Career Options

Because this field involves working with patients who are in highly unstable situations, critical care nurses typically earn more money than general RNs. LPNs are rare in this field. You could work in an emergency room or other type of facility caring for all types of patients, but critical care nurses who make the most money often work with a specialized type of patient, such as children. According to reports, critical care nurses make around $50,000 annually, though advance practices nurses in this field average much higher salaries.

Educational Requirements

Because LPNs are rarely used in critical care units, you need at least an associate’s degree to work in this field, with many positions requiring a bachelor’s degree or even master’s degree. Your education will focus on teaching you hold to respond to medical emergencies as quickly as possible, as well as how to perform more general nursing tasks. You’ll complete a combination of traditional classroom lessons and hands-on clinical work before graduating, and can seek certification in critical care if you meet your state’s requirements.

LPN to RN College Programs

While several schools have online nursing degrees available, few offer LPN to RN programs. What's the good news? We have listed some accredited schools below that do offer the program in addition to schools with other bridge programs available. Find out more information and contact each school by using any of the links below.

Indiana State University—Indiana State University offers a robust online program designed for LPNs wanting to become registered nurses and earn their BSN degree. Since ISU's credits transfer to over 80 campus majors, this is an ideal program for people wanting to open opportunities for their career down the road.

The College Network—The College Network is a partnership with several universities and organizations like the National League for Nursing that focuses on online education and programs, with several courses for nurses or those interested in a nursing career. Specifically, TCN helps students prepare for their PN and RN licensures and move on to earn graduate degrees.

Other Nursing Degrees

Walden University—Walden University is typically a graduate school with several masters and doctoral programs available, but they do have BSN and RN to MSN bridge programs available. Walden is based out of Minneapolis and offers several options in transferring your previously earned credits to and from (or even within) the school.

Kaplan University—Kaplan University is one of the nation's largest and leading online educators and offers several bridge programs for registered nurses to earn their BSN or MSN degree. If you have previously earned credits, Kaplan makes it easy for you to transfer to any one of their undergraduate or graduate programs.

Herzing University—While Herzing University does not offer an undergraduate nursing degree, it is a great choice for working nurses wanting to pursue leadership positions in Nurse Education or Management. With over 10 campuses and 45 online programs available, Herzing has a massive network that makes it easy to transfer to or from the school.

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