Open Heart unit

If it is a true open heart unit then it looks great! Do fresh surgeries come to this unit or is it several day old ones?

I"m currently an SRNA and my last job was an Open Heart Recovery unit. It's the same thing as SICU or CTICU. It's whatever your hospital happens to call their post op open heart unit. It was great experience...maybe the best I could have had for CRNA school. Good luck!!

Yeah, all hospitals have their fancy names for their ICU's. As long as you will get experience with Swans, drips, and vents, and unstable patients, it sounds like you are in the right place! Make sure to ask about what kind of orientation you will get too, and make sure the unit is friendly towards new grads!

Open Heart surgery (OHS) recovery is a specialized type of PACU recovery! At the civilian hospital where I was employed prior to joining the Army's CRNA program, the OHS nurse recovered the patient - there wasnt a PACU nurse assigned to that patient.
Developing the ability to manage and recover your OHS patient then shift gears to provide a continuum of care is the key to being the OHS nurse. I believe all SRNAs should train at this level because it is at this level that the unexpected can and will most likely to occur. How well you respond to a crisis and the time frame during which you recall and execute your mental algorhythm determines the outcome of your patient. So to those of you that got into CRNA with one year of experience - I commend you! To be working at that level is such is short period of time is to me is just amazing! Personally, it took me 4 years. To those who are aspiring to become a CRNA and are just starting out - well, its great that you have aspirations but just remember those nursing skills need to be well developed by the time you sit for your first CRNA class.


Just an Army SRNA
Hooah! sorry, its an Army thing!

I also worked in a CVSICU and believe I got the greatest experience in hemodynamics, swans, gtts, recovery of unstable surgery patients. It also helped that we were such a large unit the we take other surgical ICU patients (5-6 hearts a day) and MICU overflow on the weekends. We took trauma/neuro when that ICU was full. We were the only unit in the hospital that could take any type of patient. This turned out to be a great experience. Absolutely take the OH unit position because you recieve report from CRNAs!

I currently work in an open heart recovery unit. I think it provides some of the best experience a nurse can get. We have the opportunity to wean vents, extubate, work with vasoactive drips and most importantly.....Critical thinking skills. You will love it!

It sounds like the Open Heart Unit you are interested in is a CVICU by a different name. I'm curious, why is it not technically an ICU??