CVICU nursing

worked in a CVICU-we recovered the patients right out of surgery-cardiac and pulmonary. Normally kept them in CVICU until they had no cardiac drips, swanz discontinued, extubated, stable,etc-generally 2-3 days post-op depending on the patient and then they would go to Telemetry or step down unit.

We also had coronary care unit(PTCA, caths) overflow and sometimes ICU overflow-if they weren't "dirty" patients (don't want those around our fresh CABG patients).

I would ask specifics when interviewing-every CVICU is different across the country.

otessa

Otessa's description sounds pretty much like my CVICU. Mine recovers immediate post op CABG, AAA, and we get overflow from telemetry for cath lab patients, also MICU overflow, so we see a lot of multisystem organ failure, etc. We also get the new MI's because a lot of the docs don't trust the tele unit to take care of them (which is ridiculous and sad). Our priority is the immediate post op CABG's and other cardiac issues, then anything critical that we have room for.