Best and Worst of working CCU

Specialties CCU

Published

Specializes in Medical/Surgical.

I'm RN on Medsurg in a small KY hospital. I have 7 years in Med/Surg (can we say burnout?) and I'm looking at other departments, primarly our CCU/ICU. So tell me all, the good, the bad and the ugly.

Beth

families/patients who do not want to admit that the end is near and want everything done even if in your opinion you feel as if you are torturing the patient. Docs who don't know how to talk honestly with patients and their families.

I love my CCU. The best part is after they come back from interventions and they feel soooo much better. The worse is when they make the 98 year old 98 pound little old lady a full code even though that is not what she wanted and then no one even comes to visit her. Breaks my heart.

What I love about being in a cardiac unit vs a surgical unit is that my patients generally TALK BACK! That may sound funny but with so many pts being intubated/on vents having a fresh MI who is receptive to teaching is what I LOVE about the CCU. On the other hand, sometimes those talking patients will talk your head off or their visitors think this is the place to have their party. I LOVE our new restrictions on visiting due to the H1N1 outbreak--only 2 visitors on the WHOLE FLOOR for each patient. :yeah:

Specializes in Critical care.

Purely my own experince but it seemed like I had a lot less code browns happening in CVICU as opposed to MSICU! LOL.

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