Has Anyone Worked at DC Children's PICU?

umcRN, BSN, RN · Aug 29, 2011

I can give a little bit of insight but not much. I worked in Children's NICU for two years and now work in the cardiac icu. I have only been cross trained and floated to the PICU. I can tell from talking with travelers in our hospital that the picu does have a higher percentage of MRCP/trach/vent kiddos than most, mainly due to our nicu and the local children's rehab and long term care center, many of those kiddos bounce in and out of the picu and that center. They also have what might be considered typical of an inner city hospital, I overheard a transport RN the other night saying they had just brought in an 11 year old who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time and was hit by a drive by shooter :-( Other than that I think they probably have your typical array of very sick patients, the slew of respiratory stuff in the winter, heme-onc kids and renal transplant kids (renal is currently the only transplants the hospital does that I know of). It is a very LARGE picu that will soon be growing by another 12 beds as the cardiac icu moves to a new unit in december, and I almost always get lost when I go over there. All of the ICU's at childrens are single room units but also have a couple of multi-patient pods but that may or may not be something you are used to, I know single pt nicu's are pretty new right now but not sure about peds.

Let me know what other kids of things you want to know that I might be able to help with. The hospital is pretty good in general, no call-offs but the three icu's do float between each other when there is need, there is also usually plenty of overtime available but it is not mandatory.

Nurseforkiddos · Aug 31, 2011

Thanks so much for the post!! I'm pretty used to the MRCP population, we had a generous population of them where I came from too. I love traumas, although they always break my hearts, especially when they're victims of violence like that little guy you're talking about . I also love kidney transplants. I took care of waaay too many bowel transplants at Georgetown! Mostly I'm hoping to see a mix of acuities and take care of those really sick kids again. That's what I love about PICU! My biggest question is how the unit works. Are the nurses generally satisfied with their work? Is the medical team collaborative with nursing? Do nurses feel supported? Are people nice (I mean, once they get to know you )? Is staffing reasonable? The unit I came from was really great and I'm totally spoiled!! Anything you can find out would be great!

umcRN, BSN, RN · Sep 2, 2011

I sent you a PM. let me know if you are unable to get it

nursesharky · Apr 19, 2012

I have similar questions as asked by the other user. I was unable to figure out how to send a personal message, but would love feedback! thanks