How to Become an Intensive Care Unit Nurse:
The Definitive Guide


Being in the intensive care unit can be stressful and scary for many patients, so working as an Intensive Care Unit Nurse is an essential career.

As an Intensive Care Unit Nurse, you will work with patients who have serious illnesses that need extra attention.

In order to be the best Intensive Care Unit Nurse around, you’ll need to be able to think quick on your toes and have a cool head in stressful situations.

If you are looking for a rewarding career that will keep you on your toes, then you may want to think about becoming an Intensive Care Unit Nurse.


What is an Intensive Care Unit Nurse?

There are many things that happen in a hospital all at once, and an Intensive Care Unit Nurse is someone who has to work quickly because of it.

This job requires that nurses have great attention skills so that they can treat several patients at one time.

In the intensive care unit, patients are very ill and need additional care, an Intensive Care Unit Nurse is the one who is there to help aid and support these patients.

Some of the settings in which an Intensive Care Unit Nurse works include:

  • Personal residences
  • Outpatient surgery centers
  • Physicians’ offices
  • Manage care centers
  • Hospitals
  • Nursing schools

Duties

An Intensive Care Unit Nurse’s days will be filled with all kinds of activities.

Some of the most common ones include:

  • Cleaning and bandaging wounds
  • Monitoring life support and heart machines
  • Responding to patient issues
  • Watching and recording vitals
  • Administering medication
  • Giving IVs and taking blood
  • Diagnosing illnesses
  • Caring for a patient’s body after death

Salary

Working as an Intensive Care Unit Nurse can be challenging, that’s why Registered Nurses are paid quite a bit.

The average Intensive Care Unit Nurse makes around $77,000 a year in the United States.

Some Intensive Care Unit Nurses, those that work in large hospitals or work in largely populated areas, can make up to $110,000 a year.

If you are just starting your career as an Intensive Care Unit Nurse, it is likely that you will make closer to $52,000 a year to begin.

Depending on the state where you work and the type of facility you work in, the salary can vary.

States like California and Hawaii pay their Intensive Care Unit Nurses around $110,000 a year, while other states like Idaho and Kansas pay their nurses around $65,000 a year.

  • Annually
  • Monthly
  • Hourly

Annually National Average Salary: $94,480

$63K
$75K
$94K
$104K
$132K
10%
25%
50%
75%
90%

Average Annual Salary by State

StateAvg. Annual Salary
Alabama$71,370
Alaska$109,210
Arizona$91,430
Arkansas$72,900
California$137,690
Colorado$91,730
Connecticut$101,840
Delaware$94,670
District of Columbia$106,850
Florida$84,760
Georgia$90,000
Hawaii$119,710
Idaho$83,090
Illinois$87,650
Indiana$82,700
Iowa$74,610
Kansas$76,240
Kentucky$81,770
Louisiana$80,760
Maine$84,340
Maryland$92,090
Massachusetts$108,850
Michigan$86,210
Minnesota$94,830
Mississippi$75,510
Missouri$77,590
Montana$82,950
Nebraska$79,780
Nevada$97,700
New Hampshire$89,410
New Jersey$101,960
New Mexico$92,140
New York$106,620
North Carolina$82,530
North Dakota$79,190
Ohio$84,430
Oklahoma$82,110
Oregon$113,440
Pennsylvania$87,530
Rhode Island$95,070
South Carolina$81,390
South Dakota$69,030
Tennessee$78,240
Texas$90,210
Utah$83,100
Vermont$88,380
Virginia$88,350
Washington$111,030
West Virginia$75,990
Wisconsin$87,220
Wyoming$83,990
Guam- NA -
Puerto Rico$39,130
Virgin Islands$70,410

Annual Average Salary: Top 5 States

The top earning state in the field is California, where the average salary is $137,690.

These are the top 5 earning states in the field:

California - $137,690
Hawaii - $119,710
Oregon - $113,440
Washington - $111,030
Alaska - $109,210
* Employment conditions in your area may vary. * Salary information based on the May 2023 Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) Survey.
Conducted by: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor.

How to Become an Intensive Care Unit Nurse

Step 1Earn a Bachelor's Degree

Anyone that wants to become a nurse in the United States needs to have at least a Bachelor’s degree in nursing.

Most nursing programs can be done in colleges and universities across the country, there are even online programs.

Earning a Bachelor’s degree can take around four years to complete, and many nurses find employment as soon as they graduate, or even before.

A nursing program typically contains lab work and clinical work, but also requires classroom time.

Some of the classes that you can expect to take in a Bachelors degree nursing program are:

  • Nursing Principles
  • Nursing Ethics
  • Physiology and Anatomy
  • Chemistry
  • Biology
  • Nursing Law

Once you graduate with a Bachelor’s degree, you will need to become licensed in order to work as a nurse.

Step 2Become Licensed

Everyone that wants to work as a nurse in the United States must become licensed.

This can be done by taking the NCLEX-RN exam, which is a competency-based exam given twice a year.

It is important to connect with your local nursing board to find out when you can expect to take the exam.

The questions are multiple-choice, and it can take up to six hours to complete the exam.

Some of the things that you can expect on this exam include:

  • Management and Coordinated Care
  • Basic Care and Comfort
  • Health Promotion and Maintenance
  • Psychosocial Integrity
  • Physiological Adaptation
  • Safety and Infection Control

Within six weeks of taking the exam, you will find out whether you passed or failed.

There are no grades added to this exam, if you fail you will be able to redo the exam twice in a year.

If you pass the exam, you will become a Registered Nurse and you must renew your license every three years.

Step 3Gain a Master's Degree

After you acquire at least two years of nursing experience, it’s time to think about earning another degree.

A Master’s degree in nursing allows an Intensive Care Unit Nurse the ability to learn even more about the profession and become even more specialized.

Intensive Care Unit Nurses require a much broader education than many other specialized nurses because they see different types of illnesses daily.

The types of courses to be expected in a Masters level program are:

  • Professional Dynamics
  • Nursing Research
  • Pharmacology
  • Acute Care
  • Public Health

Many Master’s level programs also require students to partake in internships or create a capstone project in order to graduate.

Having a Master’s degree in nursing opens up many career opportunities for Registered Nurses.

Step 4Become Certified

Once you earn a degree, there are several certifications that can help you to gain more credentials.

These certifications can vary by state, but some of the most popular include:

  • Critical Care Nurse-Adult
  • Critical Care Nurse-Pediatric
  • Critical Care Nurse-Neonatal
  • Cardiac Medicine Certification

Having one or more of these certifications shows employers as well as patients that you are knowledgeable in the area that you work in.

There are qualifications that you must fill in order to be eligible for any of these certifications.

These requirements are:

  • Have an active Registered Nurse license
  • Have graduated from a nursing program
  • Have at least 2,000 hours of clinical practice

Each certification may be different, but all of them require the passing of an exam in order to become certified.

These exams are given several times a year, but you should check with your local nursing board to find out more information.

After gaining certification in any of these specialties, it’s important to renew them every three years.


Education

There are different paths that you can take when looking to become an education as a nurse in the United States.

Some nurses earn an Associate’s degree, but this opens up very few opportunities for advancement before you will need to earn a Bachelor’s degree.

A Bachelor’s degree in nursing can take around four years to finish and entails both elective and core classes that pertain to nursing.

Some of the courses that you will likely encounter through a Bachelors degree program include:

  • Nursing Principles
  • Nursing Ethics
  • Physiology
  • Public Health
  • Anatomy
  • Microbiology
  • Chemistry

Many students also work an internship or externship, which means they will gain hands-on nursing experience while earning their degrees.

An internship or externship can consist of working for the hospital or university as a medical assistant or equivalent.

Once all of the requirements for graduation have been completed and you earn a Bachelor’s degree in nursing, you must take an exam to become licensed.

After you gain experience in nursing, no matter the area of the hospital or doctor’s office, whether it be pediatrics, emergency room nursing, or surgery, it’s time to think about earning a Master’s degree in nursing if you want to work as an Intensive Care Unit Nurse.

A Master’s degree in nursing will open many career opportunities, especially for those who want to work as Intensive Care Unit Nurses.

Most Masters degree programs take around two years to complete, but there are online programs that take as little as 18 months.

In order to be eligible for a Master’s degree in a nursing program, you must have:

  • A Bachelors degree in nursing
  • An active registration as a nurse
  • 3 years of experience in nursing

Programs that are Masters level will go in more depth than a Bachelors degree, most of the courses that you can expect at the Masters level include:

  • Advanced Nurse Practice
  • Advanced Pathophysiology
  • Advanced Pharmacology
  • Health Promotion and Maintenance
  • Other specialty courses that may pertain to your field

After earning a Master’s degree in nursing you will be considered a Nurse Practitioner and can specialize in the Intensive Care Unit.

Most Intensive Care Unit Nurses have at least 3 years of experience in that area before obtaining a Master’s degree.

Video About The Career


Licensing and Certification

Every nurse in the United States must gain licensure by taking the NCLEX-RN Exam.

This exam is competency-based and typically ranges from 75 to 200 questions.

Those who answer more questions right will have to answer fewer questions on the test.

There will be a number of different areas that the exam covers, for example:

  • Safe and Effective Care Environment
  • Psychosocial Integrity
  • Physiological Integrity
  • Health Promotion

The exam is pass or fail, which means that you won’t have a score grade, but if you fail the exam you have two more opportunities per year to take the exam.

You will obtain your results by mail within 4-6 weeks of taking the exam.

After you pass the exam, you will become registered to work as a nurse in the United States.

Don’t forget to renew your licensure every 3-5 years, depending on your state.

Once you continue your career experience and decide that you want to work as an Intensive Care Unit Nurse, you may want to become certified to work in the Intensive Care Unit.

Some associations for certification call the Intensive Care Unit the Critical Care Unit, but they are considered the same certification.

There are some certifications that you can earn in order to show employers and patients that you are competent in the field.

These certifications include:

  • Critical Care Registered Nurse- Adult
  • Critical Care Registered Nurse- Pediatrics
  • Cardiac Medicine Nurse
  • Cardiac Surgery Nurse

Even though these types of certifications aren’t required in many hospitals, it’s still a good idea to gain credentials in order to show that you are capable of the job.

There are different requirements in every state, so gain as much information as you can.

Some nursing associations require Intensive Care Unit Nurses to take an exam in order to become certified, which is typically competency-based as well.

However, others require nurses to have proof of continued education, experience, and knowledge of the field.

It’s important to check with your state nursing board to find out more information.

Certification Example:

nursing ba example

Average Training Program Duration: 4+ Years

There aren’t many training programs to become an Intensive Care Unit Nurse, and this is because it is important to gain on the job experience in this field.

It’s hard to say what will happen in the Intensive Care Unit on a daily basis, so having the hands-on experience of working as a nurse is the best training available.

Most Registered Nurses who are interested in working in the Intensive Care Unit will typically train for around three years in the Unit before becoming certified.

This helps with knowledge and competency in the Intensive Care Unit.

Popular Degree Programs


Job Outlook

Luckily for prospective nurses, there will likely always be a need for this career.

People fall ill every day, unfortunately, but this means that the role of an Intensive Care Unit Nurse will be available for years to come.

Across the entire nursing field, the job outlook is great.

All Registered Nurses can expect a rise in job opportunities in the next ten years.

This career will grow around 12 percent over the next decade, which is higher than many other careers in the medical field.

The reason for the growth is due to technological advancements, as well as the rise in the aging population.

Employment Growth Projection: 12%

3,059,800
2018
3,431,300
2028

That's a higher than average projected growth of 371,500 jobs.


Should You Become an Intensive Care Unit Nurse?

Overall Satisfaction

Overall Satisfaction: Medium

Working as an Intensive Care Unit Nurse can be one of the most stressful jobs in a hospital or other medical facility.

Even though it can be tough, many Intensive Care Unit Nurses agree that it is a very uplifting job, especially when you are able to help patients heal from their illnesses.

The hours and work to home life can be challenging, however, there are many ways to gain promotions in this field-with more education.

Those that work as Intensive Care Unit Nurses agree that although the job can be tough, it is fulfilling in many ways.

Average Salary

Average Salary: High

On average, an Intensive Care Unit Nurse can make around $77,000 a year in the United States.

It’s possible to earn more in this career, especially if you work in large hospitals or areas where there is a high population.

Intensive Care Unit Nurses who have been working in the field for some time, or who work in large populations, can make up to $110,000 or more a year.

This isn’t typical for Intensive Care Unit Nurses who are just starting out in the career.

On average, beginner Intensive Care Unit Nurses can make around $52,000 a year, depending on the location of their job.

Job Growth Outlook

Job Growth Outlook: High

Due to technological advancements and the aging baby boomer population, the need for Intensive Care Nurses will likely rise, along with all other nursing careers, in the next ten years.

The prospective growth of this career is around 12 percent, which is a lot more than many other careers in the medical field.

Over the ensuing decade, the need for Intensive Care Unit Nurses will rise quite a bit, especially in areas that have higher populations or a more elderly population.

Education Duration

Education Duration: 4+ Years

On average, it takes about six years of further education to become an Intensive Care Unit Nurse.

Due to the intensity of this career, it’s important that all Intensive Care Unit Nurses are skilled and experienced in everything that can happen in the ICU.

In order to become a nurse, you must earn at least a Bachelor’s degree.

However, to work as an Intensive Care Unit Nurse, a Master’s degree is preferred at most hospitals and other medical facilities.

Most Bachelor’s degrees take around four years to finish, while a Master’s degree takes two or more.

Personal Skills Needed

Personal Skills Needed

The intensive care unit can be one of the most stressful areas of the hospital, this is why Intensive Care Unit Nurses need to have a certain set of skills.

These unique qualities include:

  • Passion for the career
  • Intensive Care Unit Nursing skills
  • Teamwork abilities
  • Quick on their toes
  • Fantastic organization skills
  • Ability to face difficult situations
  • Tenacity
  • Evaluation abilities
  • Patient care skills
  • Customer service skills
  • Personable
  • Ability to work alone
  • Compassion and empathy

Intensive Care Unit Nurses don’t just need technical skills, it’s important to be pleasant and down-to-earth in this career.

Nurses that have compassion for their patients and care for them as if they are their own family will do the best in this career.


Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What is the average salary of an Intensive Care Unit Nurse?

The salary for an Intensive Care Unit Nurse can vary, depending on several factors.

Nurses who are just starting out in the career will make less money, typically around $52,000 a year.

However, with more education and experience, the average salary for an Intensive Care Unit Nurse is around $77,000 a year.

There are some Intensive Care Unit Nurses who make quite a bit more, the highest in the country is over $112,000 a year.

Q. How long does it take to become an Intensive Care Unit Nurse?

It takes a while to work your way up to being an Intensive Care Unit Nurse.

This is because the career is very specialized and crucial to the medical field.

Anyone who works as an Intensive Care Unit Nurse must have a Master’s degree in nursing.

This typically takes around two years to complete, however, it’s also essential that nurses earn a Bachelor’s degree before that.

The average Bachelor’s degree takes around four years to finish.

All in all, it takes from six to eight years to become an Intensive Care Unit Nurse.

Q. What does an Intensive Care Unit Nurse do?

An Intensive Care Unit Nurse is essential to the critical care department of any hospital or medical facility.

Nurses in this fieldwork with patients who have severe illnesses, and must be treated with extra care.

Some Intensive Care Unit Nurses work with babies and young patients in pediatrics, and other Intensive Care Unit Nurses may work with the elderly in geriatrics.

The types of duties can vary depending on which area of the hospital you work.

Common duties include: giving IVs, taking vitals, administering medications, and diagnosing illnesses.

Q. What is the demand for Intensive Care Unit Nurses?

There will likely be a demand for all nurses for many years.

The career of Intensive Care Unit Nurses, as well as all Registered Nurses, is likely to grow in popularity around 12 percent in the next decade.

This need for more medical staff is due to technological advancements, as well as the aging baby boomer population.

Many Intensive Care Unit Nurses will also be retiring from that generation soon, and this will call for more career opportunities as well.

Q. How much does it cost to become an Intensive Care Unit Nurse?

Some Bachelor’s degrees in nursing cost around $15,000 to complete, but there are others that can cost as much as $30,000, it all depends on where you want to attend school.

There are college and nursing programs available online, which may be at a lesser cost, around $5,000 to $10,000.

Just remember that if you choose an online school, all clinical and lab work should be done in person.

Most Master’s degree programs cost around $20,000 to $50,000 to complete, depending on where you attend.

This means that it can cost anywhere from $20,000-$100,000 or more to become an Intensive Care Unit Nurse.


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