Different hospital units

[emtpbill]

As someone who has worked entirely prehospital and is starting the nursing classes shortly, can someone fill me in on what the different letters mean when referencing different units.

I know the following:

ER= emergency room

MICU= medical intensive care unit.

ICU= intensive care unit

NICU= neonatal intensive care unit

L&D= labor and delivery

Some I'm not sure of

Picu

Pacu

Sicu

Any help is appreciated.

[LM NY]

My hospital uses MBU-Mother Baby Unit

Also CPEP- Comprehensive Psychiatric Emergency Program

[Trauma_drama14, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN, NP]

The hospital I work at is a little bit different. Our ICU stepdowns are called advanced care units... So if you see for 'AC' that probably means advanced care. We have MICU (medical ICU), SICU (surgical/trauma ICU), HVICU (heart & vascular aka cardiac care ICU), and NSICU (neuroscience ICU). Our burn unit is considered advanced care and ICU, so we have a four bed BICU in the unit (burn ICU). Our ER is called ETC (emergency trauma center). Oh, another one that threw me off completely: BMTU. Our oncology floor has a bone marrow transplant unit! And we also have careflight, so its easy to confuse the two MICU (medical ICU and mobile ICU) lol

[muirite]

I've worked on a CDU- clinical decision unit. It's often considered an expansion of the ED. Patients are often 'observation' and stay for 18 hours. They will either be made inpatient and sent to a unit or discharged.

Some places call it MOU- medical obersevation unit

[K+MgSO4, BSN]

PCU palliative care unit

DOSA Day of surgery admissions

DPU day procedure unit

SCU stroke care unit

GEM geriatric evaluation and management

HITH hospital in the home

[calivianya, BSN, RN]

Stepdown has got to be the most confusing. I count several different titles in this thread alone. We used to call our stepdown TICU (transitional ICU), but now it's ICCU (intermediate critical care unit). Previous jobs called it PCU (progressive care unit), IMC (intermediate care unit) or TCU (transitional care unit).

Whatever you call the place that gets open hearts varies a lot, too. I've worked or interviewed places that called it CVICU (cardiovascular ICU), CTICU (cardiothoracic ICU), CVSU (cardiovascular surgical unit), and ACCU (advanced coronary care unit). And some places plain old CICU gets those patients. :)

[mago8388]

I work in an IPU (intensive psych unit) but it can also mean impatient psych unit

[blondy2061h, MSN, RN]

I did clinicals on a MPU- medical psych unit. Patients who needed a locked down psychiatric environment, but also had acute medical issues. Really interesting variety. A lot of suicide attempts that had ongoing issues as a result of their injuries during the attempt, some people with burns and other environmental exposure injuries from being outside inclement weather or being careless inside as a result of their illness, and some people with terrible schizophrenia now experiencing the medical side effects of long term psychiatric meds.

I work in a BMTU now. My facility also has step down bone marrow transplant. Some patients get really offended when they get told their going to the step down unit. I guess if you don't know what it means that can sound bad.

[AnnieOaklyRN, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

From one pre-hospital provider to another, good luck in your nursing endeavors!

[emtpbill, ASN, RN, EMT-P]

From one pre-hospital provider to another, good luck in your nursing endeavors!

Thanks Annie