CV ICU vs Transplant ICU: experience

Nursing Students SRNA

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  1. CV ICU or transplant ICU

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Hey everyone, thanks for clicking!

I was hoping to get some insight on which specialty would give me a good experience for a future in CRNA. I would like to stay in whatever position I choose for the majority of my career prior to nursing school. The first choice is transplant ICU in a large hospital (kidney, liver, & pancreas) and the second choice is CV ICU that is also in a large hospital.

I personally believe that both are great opportunities which leads me to my conundrum of which one to choose. I have spoken with a few people in transplant ICU and was told that it is kind of like a mixture of all ICUs including CV since they deal with similar lines just wouldn't be cardiac specific, of course, so more than likely no IABPs and the other bells and whistles of CV. As far as CV, I think it would make me an expert in hemodynamics but would be limited to the speciality of cardiac.

I think it is easy to tell I'm leaning more towards the wide variety of transplant ICU but was just hoping to get other people's opinions as well. Thanks in advance!

Edit: I am currently an extern in CV ICU at a different large hospital

CV/CT is better, but in the end it doesn't matter. Any ICU is good. Just study and know your stuff. I got into 3 out of 4 schools and I have only worked MICU and Neuro.

It just doesn't matter. Either one will be fine. As long as you get a wide variety of disease processes, and all the toys and bells and whistles that go with them, you should be fine. There is probably no case bigger, sicker, or more unstable than a liver transplant. That experience will be invaluable. However, even the busiest of centers don't do that many. You won't have a fresh liver every time you come to work. Kidney transplants are far more common, but far more boring, and not usually very sick. Pancreas transplant patients are diabetics who usually have significant disease in multiple organ systems, but again, how many are there? Only you know the answer to some of these questions. My only problem with the transplant ICU is that you wont have high acuity many days, and this is lost opportunity learning. The CVICU may be better for day in and day out amounts of learning-teaching opportunities. Good luck.

Thank you for your reply and perspective. Also congratulations for that!

That is a very valid point. I didn't consider the every day acuity for each floor. Thank you for bringing that perspective to mind!

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