Do you like being a CCU nurse?

nursecass · Mar 19, 2011

I started my career in a CVICU and because of location had to move to a hospital closer to home that does not offer ICU so now I do ER and I must say that I LOVE/LOVED being a CVICU nurse! It really is my passion, and I miss it every day. I loved the acuity of the patients, and how you can literally see them improve in front of your eyes. I used to work a lot of overtime (4 shifts a week regularly) and I was always amazed at the improvement just 4 days gives a person. I would take fresh open heart cases and (if able to) keep them all 4 of my shifts and it was amazing to take them from sedated/lined/tubed to walking around the unit interacting with their family members in just those 4 days.

In addition to seeing how quickly the patients change (because it can also go the other way unfortunately) I also loved the technology that is associated with it. I loved tracking all the trends, catching just the slightest thing that is not right and trying to figure out what was going on-it was always such a mental challenge for me that it really made going to work fun. So for me, personally, it is the best job ever! :) Obviously everyone will be different and there are certainly some people that are not cut out for CVICU life, but I have found it to be where my heart is! (Sorry for the cheesy pun!)

JustMe · Mar 23, 2011

Our CCU cares for sick hearts--no post-op surgical hearts in our unit. I like having pts with sick hearts because they talk back to me. They have severe CHF, poor EFs, gawd-awful rhythms, and crappy valves, but they're usually not on the vent (yet) and I can interact with them in a meaningful way. Lots of patient teaching, family teaching, "watch and wait" situations. They are fatigued and SOB all the time--need lots of TLC because they have no cardiac reserve. And when they have sick hearts, they also usually have renal insufficiency, liver dysfunction, cellulitis, etc, etc. We also get the STEMIs after their trip to the cath lab. They also needs lots of teaching and careful observation for the first 24hrs.