If you are fearful or easily frightened, then being a critical care nurse will not be your cup of soup. Like the well-trained soldier that enters the theater of war; he knows he's going to see some scary crap, he might be called upon to do stuff that wasn't in the training manual, but nonetheless, he is mentally ready for anything. The same goes in the ICU; you have to look under the covers occasionally, to make sure all the body parts are still attached.

Dripology

Vasoactive dripology
Is a dangerous regime,
Be it micro drops or milligrams
You must understand the scene.

If it's cardiac performance
That you're trying to enhance,
You must know a lot of formulas
To do the cardiac output dance.

It it's a shock and rock occasion
A perfusion loss severe,
You'll be dialing up the pressors
In a state of constant fear,
Knowing there's a likelihood
Of gangrene a'la carte,
It could start with minor foot-drop
And then you lose the whole damn part.

It's clearly not a job
For the feeble minded geek,
You have to know arithmetic
And have the guts to take a peek.

Fibril_late; 6/94