Picking your unit
Your first unit shapes your first year more than your hospital's name does. Med surg, tele, and step down build the base most specialty units screen for, while ICU, ED, and L&D each ask for something different. Pick the bedside you can live with on a hard week, not the one that sounds most impressive out loud.
1,138 ICU / Critical Care roles are open on the board right now.
Guides
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So You Want to Be an ICU Nurse? Here's What the Job Actually Asks of You
You already know how to keep a patient safe. The question is whether you want to do it at the sharpest edge of acute care — where the monitors never stop, the margins are thin, and your judgment is the difference between a stable night and a code. That's the ICU. Before you chase
New grad to ICU: how hiring actually works right now
New-grad ICU hiring runs on residency cohorts and trajectory signals, not the med-surg-first rule everyone repeats. How to read the postings, which credentials actually move, and the honest adjacent paths.
The tool for this
Open ICU / Critical Care roles
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AdventHealth
Registered Nurse (RN)
ICU
Zephyrhills, Florida
Night shift
LifeWorks Wellness Center
Registered Nurse (RN)
4/10 day shift (outpatient)
Clearwater, Florida
Day shift
Lee Health
Registered Nurse (RN)
Clinic Educator - $35-47 per hour
Fort Myers, Florida
Day shift
Hartford HealthCare
Registered Nurse
(RN, GN) - Graduate Nurses Welcome to Apply!!!
Hartford, Connecticut
Weekend shift · Per Diem contract
IVI RMA GLOBAL
Registered Nurse (RN)
Full-Time
Newark, Delaware
Day shift · Per Diem contract
DaVita Kidney Care
Registered Nurse
Las Vegas, Nevada
Evening shift · Per Diem contract
Questions nurses ask
- Do I have to do med surg first?
- No, but it is the widest door. Plenty of units take new grads directly, and plenty of specialty units still want that base year first. The honest answer lives in each unit's own postings and prerequisites.
- How do I know which unit fits me?
- Pace, patient population, and what a normal shift asks of you. The explorer puts units side by side on those terms, and the guides below carry what nurses say each one is really like.
- Can I switch units later?
- Yes. Internal transfers are common once you have bedside time, and many specialty doors open at the experience gates. Switching is a move, not a restart.