Critical care nurse who misses Med/Surg

[ontheway2crna]

I have been working in a neuro ICU for a year now and I have tried so hard to like it but I just don't. Before this I worked on a Med/Surg floor for a little over a year, and while I really enjoyed working with all of my co-workers, I felt like I was not challenged mentally enough and I was interested in learning critical care. Right now, I do not really connect with any of my co-workers, I just do not feel like I belong. Some of my co-workers are just down right mean and unapproachable and can be condescending. When they bash Med/surg nurses and their "lack" of critical thinking I always stand up for them and defend them like, hey, I was one! Theres no time to think about the pathophysiology of each patient on a Med/Surg floor, you should try it! I know I have so much to learn still but I miss Med/Surg. I feel like I do a lot of sitting in the ICU and I miss the busy-ness of Med/Surg. I also feel depressed being in the neuro ICU. While I have literally seen miracles happen, normally a lot of people lose their independence and I see a lot of our efforts as prolonging their suffering. I resent their family members for sending them to long term care to make no further improvements. I feel like my ethics dont match what I am doing, I did not think that would ever be an issue but it really upsets me. I want to give my manager 2 years as he expected in order to get back his return on investment for training me because I want to stay with my hospital and not be blacklisted. I need advice on what to do because I am miserable and I dont see myself muddling through another year of this.

[ontheway2crna]

Thank you all for your thoughts. I think I may hang in there one more year and then try SICU. MICU, as others have said, has a lot of patients with chronic issues and may have frequent fliers, which is similar to M/S and I did not like that part of it either.

[anon456, BSN, RN]

I agree with the others to follow your heart but give the 2 years you committed to.

I work PICU, and although there are ethics cases involved there too, and it can be stressful and heartbreaking, it is also very very interesting with the variety of cases we get. You might consider PICU if you want to have intellectually challenging cases that are different every day. We get level one trauma, DKA, new onset leukemia, neuro surgeries, and many very rare syndrome and conditions. As well as the usual respiratory/intubation kids.

It is rewarding to work with the families even when the outcome is not good. Someone has to be there for the families and the child, and it's an honor to be one of those people to walk the journey with them, even if the journey is difficult. I truly do feel like I make a difference.

[BrendaH84, BSN]

holy smoke, this might be an old post. but i have to decide if i will go to neuro ICU or stay on my med/surg/tele unit. i dont mind med surg, never boring, rarely depressing, mostly appendectomies, hernia repairs etc. my friend was in medical ICU in a different hospital and hated it. why r we keeping these people alive etc. gee i just thought it would be nice to have LESS patients per shift, but, I don't want to be sad every shift either I might just decline the neuro ICU