Curious

[Caleb_RN225]

What's it's like working on the burn unit. What all do bicu nurse do

[Sam J.]

They sweat a lot because of the warm air and the gowns/masks and other equipment. They cry a lot because of what they deal with every day- death, suffering, unspeakable child abuse and other injuries from fires and accidents and explosions. They hear blood-curdling screams all day. They give tons of morphine. They change miles of bandages. And many of them start looking for other work soon after they arrive- the work is sad, tough, difficult, draining, life-altering, and yet it can also be 'amazing' to see those patients that recover (without gross disfigurement or disability) walk out of there, intact after a few weeks or months or even years of such intense, 24/7 treatment.

[melizerd, ASN, RN]

Wow I guess the previous poster doesn't like BICU. I did 6 weeks there my final semester of school and fell in love. There's no I between you love it or hate it. Several nurses I worked with had been there over 15 years. No one had been there less than 2 years, it's hard to get a job in my local burn center because people don't leave often.

It can be warm and there is a lot of dressing changes. Patients are fairly comfortable with proper pain medication, I never had anyone "screaming in pain". Some patients do die but many more go home and lead normal lives.

Sometimes a shower and dressing change can last two hours where you are gowned, masked and gloved but you get used to it. You do a lot of talking and dealing with PTSD type symptoms, and teaching about going home etc.

I will work there after I have a couple years nursing under my belt. It's my dream job.

[Sam J.]

I 'loved' my time in the burn unit. I only described what the poster asked for. The place I was at is a children's hospital, and the typical burn nurse lasted less than 6 months, and many much less- possibly because most of the patients were babies and young children, and too overwhelming for many nurses to cope with, emotionally. That was also 20 years ago, lots of pain med advances have been made in that time, as well as the understanding of pain. Example- how many of us hasn't cringed to hear another nurse say "I don't want to give her too much morphine- she might become addicted"?

[melizerd, ASN, RN]

I think that attitudes in the burn unit have changed since then. I never heard that attitude about pain meds there.

Our burn center does children and adults, it's a regional burn center.