ED vs. ICU

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Looking for opinions and rationales as to why one area is better than the other for a nurse with an established med/surg background looking into critical care. Honestly, if I was offered an opportunity to do either I would take it in a heartbeat, but in the off chance I had a choice between the two (specifically cardiac icu), I'm torn.

Specializes in being a Credible Source.

In a big ED, you will get some experience with invasive monitoring, drips, etc because the units are sometimes full so we end up boarding patients for quite a few hours.

One thing I like about the ED is that we have regular interaction with the docs, who are generally very friendly and helpful, and always willing to teach.

And when things go to crap, I can have three docs (attending, R1 and R3) in the room in under a minute - even at the microhospital, I had a doc nearby all the time.

Shifts fly by in the ED.

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as for "experts"...I'd rather have an ED nurse drop in 18 in my AC with the ish hitting the fan than an ICU nurse...just sayin'

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