With the incredible responsibility of caring for patients in life-threatening situations, critical care nurses have high-risk and rewarding careers. The nurse must assume the role of advocate for the unconscious patient and build ties with the patient's family during the patient's hospital stay. These situations add an emotional weight to nurses' professional lives and can affect their mental health. Despite this heavy burden, critical care has many benefits. When working in intensive care units and other health care facilities, critical care nurses have access to the latest medical equipment and can work alongside experienced professionals. Paramedics also have many opportunities to specialize and earn higher salaries or seek higher positions. Working as an ICU nurse is something I've grown to love, but I haven't always seen myself do. When I first entered nursing school, I wanted to be a surgical nurse, but as I went to clinics and gained experience, I became interested in the emergency department (ED). Whether you want to work in the ER, ICU, or other critical care environment, it's important to consider both the pros and cons of being a critical care nurse...more time for your patients! This was my favorite thing after moving from remote nursing to ICU. Working on the floor, you can care for up to 4-6 patients. Because of this, there is often little time to really know each patient, their medical history, and treatment plan. However, since there are usually 1-2 patients in the ICU, more time can be spent focusing on patient details. However, this applies mainly to intensive care units. The goal in the ER is to stabilize the patient and get them to their next destination without spending too much time searching for medical history. There is a patient who is no longer in a critical stage but still needs ICU facilities and her ICU care. Some patients at the end of life can still benefit from being sent to a home where critical care services can be provided alongside home care. Long stays in the ICU increase the risk of nosocomial infections and may delay initiation of rehabilitation treatment. Therefore, people who may need critical care are essentially those recovering from long stays in the ICU, neurological patients, spinal cord/brain injuries and/or multiple trauma patients. Post-transplant patients, terminally ill patients, cancer patients, patients with end-stage respiratory disease, patients undergoing ventilators and/or tracheostomy – just to name a few. The purpose of providing clinical rotations in primary care programs is to integrate skills and knowledge from the classroom setting into the clinical practice setting. In the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), nursing students have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the complex health issues of critically ill patients, practice selected technical skills, and develop communication skills. Entry into ICU as a nursing student has both advantages and challenges. Being prepared allows the student to immerse herself in her ICU environment, acquire new knowledge and skills, and work with nurses caring for critically ill patients. Nurses must balance patient care with the additional responsibility of helping students achieve their clinical goals. It is best to have a faculty member who is also clinically competent in her ICU and can facilitate clinical experience. Schools, hospitals and intensive care units must work together to provide a safe and positive clinical experience for patients. In return, hospitals can recruit student nurses and clinical faculty. Thoughtfully and intentionally planned, ICU rotations can provide the ideal clinical environment for high school nursing students to learn the role of a registered nurse.