ER to CV surgical ICU or MICU?

[trauma_lama, BSN]

Hey friends,

quick brain-pick. I finished my BSN and I'm looking to the next phase, not sure yet if I want to pursue acute care NP or CRNA. Either way I know I will need ICU experience to achieve my future goals so I'm looking in that direction now. I have a few years under my belt in a large level I trauma center ED so I'm familiar with high acuity, and I tend to like the sicker of the sick. I've got interviews set up with MICU for a no-weekends, days-only position (SWEET!) and CSICU with rotating shifts (yuck) but they do ECMO there (on my list of professional learning goals). Do y'all have any insight into either of these types of units? I'm stuck on quality of life issues (days only and no weekends sounds super good as I have small kids, while rotating shifts will probably beat my ***) and learning environment (any unit which has ECMO patients is probably going to be an amazing learning opportunity, amiright??). If you have any thoughts, please drop them below. Especially would love to hear any experiences you have with ECMO!

Thanks y'all!

[/username, BSN, RN]

After you do ECMO enough, it's really just another machine. I think you should do the surgical ICU because it will be a petter platform to jump to CRNA school, the patients tend to be more acutely ill, and there's often more machines and fancy gadgets.

Oh, and also because MICU blows donkey ***. Fight me.

[KeepinitrealCCRN]

Agree with everything above. MICU is hell on earth. ECMO is also boring and depending on where you work a perfusionist might run the machine so you really don't do anything with that. You need to learn hemodynamics and managing emergency situations and intubations. CTICU or Surgical/Trauma ICU are your best bet for experience. Go for CSICU if your goals are CRNA or NP as they favor that type of experience over MICU.