Anyone work in the extension CDU/23 hour obs?

[%63theend]

I can't seem to find a forum for people who work in this area. I'm curious if anyone has moved from the Clinical Decision Unit/ 23 hour observation into the ER and if so how was your transition? Did you feel prepared? I feel like at our hospital the CDU is a hybrid unit. It is fast paced like the ER but has some features of typical med surge. 99.9% of our admissions come from the ER and we admit and discharge with a revolving door the same as the ER so I feel like it is a good training ground. We typically get patients with AMS, Syncope, change in LOC, chest pain, r/o stroke, Hypertensive crisis, pneumonia, N/V/D, dehydration, abdominal pain unknown origin or r/t appendix, gallbladder, diverticulitis. Maybe half of our patients at one time are chest pain patients where we follow their troponins and do a d-dimer/ chest CT. We also get post op patients TURPs, appi, chole, etc. Anyway... I'm just curious if this is good training for the ER should I ever want to go there. Before nursing school I was certain I'd end up in the ER. Now I have such a healthy fear of nursing I'm not sure if I will or won't ever apply LOL

[ukjenn231]

I worked in a unit similar to what you are describing. it is great experience to take care of people of varying diagnoses. It definitely helps to get used to the fast paced as well, it helps develop your time management skills. I am in the ER now and I feel what I lack the most is the critical care skills. If you want to go to the ER, this type of unit definitely would be helpful but there are still so many more things to learn.