Pediatric Intensive Care Unit
In the 25-bed Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, one of the country's finest, our nurses enjoy an environment of intellectual stimulation and cutting-edge patient management technology.
Managing more than 900 admissions a year, the PICU provides care for a variety of critically ill or injured children.
Common diagnoses of our patients include solid organ transplants, multiple trauma, complex multiple organ dysfunction, acute respiratory failure, overwhelming infections / sepsis, shock syndromes, neurologic diseases and injuries, and a wide variety of post-operative surgical procedures.
During the first phase of this internship, nurses work on a general medical surgical unit with a preceptor to build confidence and skill. The intern is introduced to moderately complex patients and family centered care.
During this phase, lectures and demonstrations help to introduce the intern to the PICU environment, systems and members of the interdisciplinary team as he or she begins to become familiar with nursing care.
This phase lasts 8 to 10 weeks. The PICU preceptor is identified early in the internship so the new nurse can begin to get to know him or her even before beginning their orientation in the PICU.
In the second phase, interns enter a precepted orientation in the PICU. Our preceptors have demonstrated their knowledge and friendliness, good communication skills, a desire to teach and proficient nursing care.
In the PICU interns gain experience with all forms of critical illness and appropriate therapeutic interventions. They also continue critical care classroom learning and focus on family centered care and education.
Experiences are geared toward stepwise learning building each day on knowledge gained as the internship progresses. This phase lasts 8 to 12 weeks.
In the final stage of the internship, nurses work independently in the PICU caring for moderately complex critical care patients. The complexity and challenge of patient assignments increases as the nurse becomes more comfortable with ICU care.
For more information about the graduate nurse internships at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, or to apply, please contact:
Nursing Recruitment and Retention Team
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
3333 Burnet Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45229-3039
513-636-0219
877-636-0219 (toll-free)
nurses4kids@cchmc.org
