ICU or CCU

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So I have been wanting a little bit of a change in pace and am thinking about taking a job in either the ICU or CCU (Coronary Care Unit). Right now I am employed as a CNA on a pediatric floor that also doubles as a med/surg unit. While my floor is very interesting and I have learned a lot, I think I am ready to move into critical care. I also think it will give me more options once I finish nursing school. Briefly the difference between the two in my hospital is ICU has pts of varying diagnoses while CCU focuses more on heart related issues such as MI's, balloons, CABG's, and etc. My dilemma comes with this; I know most of the employees in ICU already and think that the workers there would be more easy to get along with. However, I feel like I would enjoy learning about the heart and its problems more than the randomness of ICU's pts. Does anyone have any experience or advice to offer? I posted this in the CNA forums, but I like to get RN's opinions as well. Thanks!!

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I don't think you could go wrong either way. My personal preference is CCU, but as you said, you would get more variety in terms of diagnoses in ICU.

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Specializes in ICU.

I have always worked general ICU, at multiple jobs, and I can tell you it is a depressing place. I hear a lot of CCU patients, especially heart surgery patients, can actually get better and go home. Real home, like with their families. Most of ours go to nursing homes, LTACHs, or the morgue. I don't think I've actually had someone that the plan was for them to go home and live a normal life for a long, long time. If you think the stabilizing of the chronic patients so they and/or the nursing home can half kill them so they can come back to you again later is something that wouldn't annoy you, general ICU is a good choice.

I personally like the variety and the critical thinking that comes from wondering which of the 10,000 diagnoses this crazy noncompliant person has are related to what signs and symptoms I'm seeing, which is why I've stayed. Sometimes it takes some real creativity to figure out what's wrong with general ICU patients.

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You really sound focused and excited about your nursing career. It is great.

I vote starting in ICU. All ICU patients will have cardiac monitoring, from basic 5 lead telemetry to more advanced Swan Ganz monitoring. Many will be on various vaso pressures. So an ICU nurse will learn a lot about cardiac nursing. Then after a few months, years, I would think you could easily transfer to a CCU unit.

Who knows....you might get through nursing school fall in love with labor and delivery! :)

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CCU, you see better outcomes usually.

As an above poster said, the ICU can be a drag especially when you can have patients with GI bleeds, open festering/oozing wounds with lactulose Q6 yelling and screaming all night. The variety is certainly there but depending on where your ICU is, it's not the variety you really want to see. Not everyone is always vented or sedated. You do more with less a lot of the times because it's total care. The mortality is usually high, so if you are affected by that kind of thing do not go to the ICU. You put in a lot of work to either see a patient die or end up in a SNF for life.

On the flip side you learn a vast breadth of medical knowledge due to a MICU being the catch all of sick patients. Your nursing knowledge will flourish because of this. CCU is pretty specific.

At the end of the day I think you will enjoy wherever you go. Attitude is everything on a busy ICU floor. Some days it is harder to to keep that positive attitude because well...we are all human and there are many things in a healthcare environment that can be annoying. At the end of the day, patient care is all that matters.

Just my 2 cents

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

Hello, there! We have moved your thread to the Critical Care Nursing forum to elicit more responses from our very knowledgeable members. Good luck to you!

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Thanks for everyone's input! I really appreciate it. After reading everything I am leaning towards ICU. As someone stated earlier I am extremely excited about my nursing career and I really want to swing for the fences and make the most of it. Rather or not I have made the correct decision to move off of my unit, it is a decision that will get me into critical care. I am excited! Thanks again!

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I vote for ICU

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Depends on your interests. ICU is usually medical like pneumonia and sepsis which can be longer term & depressing. CCU is usually heart only and more short term in comparison. CTICU is cardiac surgical and more short term. Then some hospitals split their ICU even further into trauma, surgical, neuro, burn, etc.

I vote to look for a mixed ICU that gets a mix of all the above...keeps it interesting!

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Specializes in Critical care.

CVICU ;)

best of both worlds

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Specializes in Internal Medicine.

I prefer CCU/CVICU. You will still get Medical ICU patient if your facility is busy, but you actually get to watch your patients get better and improve regularly. Plus, you will get to see a lot of cool hemodynamic monitoring that isn't quite as common in ICU (at least in my area). Not to say MICU patients don't get better, but there are times when you're in a Medical ICU and you feel like you're working in the middle of a vegetable patch.

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