When you have a vent and drips that need titrated is where your skills come into play. We have it for 1 year and then it switches. Recovery of post-op surgical thoracic surgeries is very by the book. I've been in her unit before, and 99% of the time they are taking care of cardiac or vascular surgery patients, with a rare overflow from SICU or MICU. Each day they hang the same drips, see the same surgeries, draw the same lab work, and follow the same protocol down to the letter as they did the day before. Those were really good responses, and it's great to get feedback from experienced nurses. I want to work in a unit where I am constantly learning new things, always expanding my horizons, and really caring for the most critically ill in the hospital. Just remember you need to have confidence in yourself, your skills, and your team members....and never be afraid to ask a question. Specializes in Adult ICU/PICU/NICU. I had thought about starting in an adult ICU just to gain experience and then possibly moving to PICU if I needed a change of scenery. Needless to say, I don't know anything about neuro. When you start going down this path, I would choose whichever ICU has the manager you feel best about. If someone has a lung mass, and they're getting a lobectomy, and they need vent and BP management before extubating the patient, that person is in the SICU. MICU -position is at the main hospital of the 3 hospital campuses in the network -located at an 800 bed teaching hospital -24 Bed MICU -has other ICUs as well (SICU, PICU, CVICU, etc) -slightly longer commute ~25mins -can only start once she passes her NCLEX (~1 month from now) -hospital is not in as nice area as the other position Sometimes we have patients that are very sick and need a lot of one on one care and other times we have a patient that has had a major procedure, but does well after. Thank you again for your advice, it has been wonderful. I say check out the ICUs, see where you feel like is the best fit for you....regardless of what the name of it is. This tends to be trumped by a Neuro ICU or a Cardio ICU if that's where they're more appropriately placed. I had thought about PICU, but wasn't sure if it would be right for me. They are on the vent for one full day, then they are up walking on the second day, and by lunch or dinner on the third day they are on the step down unit. The surgeons were familiar with the SICU nurses and had a very close working relationship and had a trust for the SICU nurses. Currenlty we do not have Trauma, but will take it back in January! We had a recent meeting with our head Trauma MD and we are looking into ambulating patients that are on the vent! Has 5 years experience. Thank you! The hospital I'm at is almost always short on all ICU beds, plus we have sizeable stepdown units for less critical patients, so both the SICU and MICU pretty much guarantee you'll have patients that are on death's doorstep. Specializes in around 25 years psych, 10 years medical. I do have a passion for critical care, I've wanted to be an ICU nurse since I was six, and I hope I will be good at it. I also had some ethical issues in the NICU. LEGO Baukästen Sets-LEGO 40138 40139 Xmas 2015 Exclusives NEW MISB 91095vkwl31167-schneller Versand weltweit - www.allevamentojackrussell.biz The experience you will learn is great and you will always be learning new things. Is SICU more fluid based resuscitation where MICU is more pressor and vasoactive drugs? I think the acuity is what matters. If you don't ask, you can never learn the answer! Since 1997, allnurses is trusted by nurses around the globe. Most programs like the Cardiovascular ICU-like some people on this thread said, contact the directors for each program and find out if they have any preference for the ICU they like and take it from there. I'm only floated to our ICU's when they're slammed, but a quick two cents on MICU vs SICU - in a lot of hospitals, they end up with the same patients on busy days. Do you want a person with a lot of dressing changes, hypovolemia/septic shock patients after a bowel perf, or do you want a pneumonia/COPD/DKA type of patient. By using the site you agree to our Privacy, Cookies, and Terms of Service Policies. I figured that surgical/trauma ICU would be pretty close to the ED without all the negative aspects. When the ICU split into MICU and SICU in the 70s, I chose to go to MICU simply because I didn't care for some of the surgical attendings. Hope this helps. Has 30 years experience. Truth be told, I would work in any ICU: neurosurgical, burn, surgical, medical, pediatric, neonatal; I wouldn't refuse a job in any of the ICUs. (if they can ambulate, depends on fractures ect. I was a traveler and worked in about every type of ICU (SICU, MICU, CVICU, NICU, TICU). Sometimes with our trach patients or chronic vents we also get them up to the chair. We can not wait!! We had a recent meeting with our head Trauma MD and we are looking into ambulating patients that are on the vent! Whichever unit will provide you the best orientation will likely be the best place to go. The second job is in a 300+ bed hospital on SICU. Some will have quality of life issues, but not the majority. I think the schools feel if you know your specialty inside and out then you can be taught anything. It is easy to feel like you have too much to do sometimes, and not enough time. They needed a real NICU nurse, not a PICU nurse who is adventerous. If I would have had to do my career all over again, I would have been a PICU nurse from day one. (if they can ambulate, depends on fractures ect. that for a new nurse sicu would be a little harder to adjust to because of the variety of patients as oppose to cvicu where you can kind of expect and predict what will happen. I got in at Mercer and TWU and got interviews to every other place I applied (declined other interviews due to getting in in my home town). So mainly same exposure as other units just for a different dx. Work where you want and do what interests you as long as you get good experience. We love trauma and love taking care of the trauma patients. The SICU nurse needs to be adept and managing the medical problems of the patient as well as caring for the fresh post-op surgical patient. They follow a pathway and it's very boring for some. An adult, usually, will give you plenty of warning. Residents are not there to back up nurses. Thank you, HazelLPN! 1-612-816-8773. every patient is different and can go down the drain fast!!! If you have any ICU internships in your area, I would highly advise them. Just one example of many. Believe me, I am going to rely heavily on my classmates with CV experience during school! cvicu vs sicu, Methodist Hospital is the flagship facility in San Antonio’s renowned South Texas Medical Center. Sounds like SICU/Trauma ICU would be an excellent fit for you if Sepsis/hypovolemic shock type patiens is what you are interested in! A MICU is a Medical Intensive Care Unit, where patients need critical care for non-surgical reasons. CVICU is listed in the World's largest and most authoritative dictionary database of abbreviations and acronyms The Free Dictionary Brett has a good answer. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my question! I work in the SICU at my hospital and have also spent a few days on the medial ICU. SI does get some ODs or Resp Failure every now and again, and we can get some surgery patients. We also do start IS with the patients as soon as we can because that would just increase the number of pneumonia patients if we did not start right away. Hope this helps and good luck with your new role!!! Kids can also compensate better than adults do before they crump. I'm all for new grads starting in high acuity ICU's. I wish we were using them more b/c I think they would help us with some of our more difficult patients, but I can't make the MD's place them. I want to experience as much, and learn as much, as I can. Sounds like SICU/Trauma ICU would be an excellent fit for you if Sepsis/hypovolemic shock type patiens is what you are interested in! Spielzeuge Spiele-Reproductions Road Model 1 Built Maroon Taxi Austin - Kit Metal Weiß Scale 43 8bcc2uthx81198-online zu verkaufen - www.allevamentojackrussell.biz My hospital currently shares the Trauma service with another hospital in our city. It seems exciting in a way, and I know that you have to be very intelligent, but I think I would get bored of the monotony that the nurses face in that unit. that they may have!). We do float to SI a lot, our units are run by one manager and we are one floor apart, and every time I have floated there I have loved it too. Even if the residents cover the CVSICU the attendings expect the nurses to oversee the patient care and alert the attending if a resident is in over his head. Good Luck! I dont mean to offend anyone who thinks i'm implying cvicu nursing is easy WHICH I DEFINITELY DON'T THINK. It really doesn't matter when you break it all down. These patients still need close monitoring, but may not be as intense as a typical ICU patient. Also, alot of patients have other medical issues that you would deal with in SICU or MICU so you get the best of both worlds. In MI we get, as others have said, the exacerbation of the chronic illness patients. It is a general SICU that gets all trauma, neuro, and, of course, surgery pts. You don't have to know nearly as much as a PICU or adult ICU nurse in terms of variety, but you better know premies very well because there is so little room for error. Generally these patients are severely ill, and require intensive, round-the-clock care from a highly trained group of doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. Currenlty we do not have Trauma, but will take it back in January! I've been thinking about your advice, and I am now adding PICU to my list of ICUs that I am considering working in. In the hospital where I moonlight with an agency, there is only a CCU and a SICU. Generally, SICU patients are younger, but in both units you will still find that many of the patients are geriatric. When a patient goes bad, and requires other treatments not related to open heart surgery, who do you think delivers this care? Hopefully, upon graduating I plan on working either sicu or cvicu. We all titrate drips on our own and expect changes in minutes. i went straight to cvicu from nursing school, and it's not predictable.