CICU vs TICU

[piperknitsRN]

I wanted to post this question on the general forum, where I thought it might get a little more "publicity" than on the ICU forum.

I have job opportunities in a CVICU (open heart recovery and medical cardiac/interventional cardiac) at a smaller branch of a teaching hospital, and one in a large, level one regional trauma center/teaching hospital in their SICU/TICU (trauma ICU). Positions are rarely open on this latter floor. I am debating which job to take.

I am currently working as a traveler at the smaller hospital on their cardiac stepdown unit, and therefore am well acquainted with their procedures, policies, doctors, and so forth. I have two years of predominately cardiac stepdown experience, and have never worked with trauma patients, but the experience at a level one trauma center would probably be invaluable, and the manager feels I am capable of the transition.

I know I like working with open heart/cardiac patients, and thought CVICU would be the next logical step, as I have interest in recovering fresh open hearts and more acute management of interventional patients. It's hard to say whether or not I would "like" or "enjoy" working TICU since I don't have experience with the patient subset, and can only imagine some of the generalities associated with taking care of these kinds of patients.

I was wondering if folks with both CICU and TICU experience could chime in and offer some insight into what working these floors is/was like for them, and what they liked best and least, etc, as a way of helping me decide which job I might like best. I do plan to shadow on TICU, but, I'm going to have to make up my mind very soon, and it's always good to gather more information. Thanks!

[RNperdiem, RN]

I work in SICU/trauma, so am biased towards that unit. I have floated a lot to cardiothoracic ICU, and enjoyed my floats there.

In general I have found cardiac/thoracic patients come from the OR more critically ill, yet are recovered faster. Within a short space of time drips are weaned off, chest tubes out, patient is extubated and in a chair ready to transfer out so the next sick postop patient can have their bed.

As a surgical unit, there may be overflow patients from SICU.

[piperknitsRN]

Hi! Thanks for you input. What do you like the best about working in trauma/SICU? I am assuming along with multi-system injuries there are a lot of trauma specific neuro/ortho issues which I am not as familiar with as cardiac. From the stepdown side, I'm not crazy about neuro/ortho ; it may, of course, be very different in an ICU setting; so it's impossible to judge.

[sameericu]

hi every one i am working in saudia arabia as staff nurse in CICU and i am doing preoperative counsellings i need help in this project