CCU nurses

I am going into ccu as a new grad and I have heard that ccu nurses are a "different breed" of nurse. In the hospital that I work in ccu nurses have a bad reputation. The nurses from the floor hate to float to ccu because of what they have heard.:uhoh21: I don't have a problem with these nurses and I have seen how they treat float help. They give them the easiest patients and help them whenever they need it. Why do you think that ccu nurses have such bad reputations?

In my 10 years of working in CVICU/CTICU/CCU I have come to realize why at some hospitals we have a bad rap.

I think it is because when you are taking care of a fresh MI, CABG or transplant things can go south pretty darn quickly - and when that happens most of us have no problem delegating tasks and giving orders to who ever is in the room in order to get things done for our patients. These units usually have the most codes (and unexpected codes) than other units thus we are use to reacting and moving quickly.

Since we experience more codes than other units (for the most part) we start recognizing patterns prior to a patient heading south THUS may start delegating without other nurses even realizing what we potentially see going on...this is what gives us the bad rap.

imho

I am going into ccu as a new grad and I have heard that ccu nurses are a "different breed" of nurse. In the hospital that I work in ccu nurses have a bad reputation. The nurses from the floor hate to float to ccu because of what they have heard.:uhoh21: I don't have a problem with these nurses and I have seen how they treat float help. They give them the easiest patients and help them whenever they need it. Why do you think that ccu nurses have such bad reputations?

I've just not seen this happen at all. We do get a lot of float help, both from tele nurses and ICU nurses picking up extra shifts. We are always short-staffed and are happy to have the extra help. Assignments are made on peoples' strengths and capabilities; I've learned a lot from ICU nurses when we have ICU overflow patients.

Of course, every unit will vary. But I've been in CCU 4 months as a new grad and just love it more and more as every week goes by. We have some very sick patients. Most of the time there is simply no time for games of catfights. Stuff needs to get done and the staff teams up and gets itdone.

CCU RN's are " different" We experience physical and emotional stressors that floor RN's do not. We are very territorial of our unit. We typically do not like " New people" Just because it usually means more work for us. We are responsible for the new RN and our own patients as well. You have to have thick skin to work in CCU and don't take things personal. We are usually at max capacity w/ a waiting list so there is no down time.