If your calling is CCU...

good luck with interview. if it's your calling you will find it. if not, you'll be a better nurse for knowing it whatever you do.

CCU nurses....

Pease tell me why you love working in the CCU vs. other areas of nursing - why is CCU YOUR niche?

Is it something special about these kinds of patients, the intricacy of the work, both?

I have an interview on Monday and believe this may very well be my niche, but of course I don't know yet.

Also, what's the next step after CCU nursing (if there is one)...CCRN? CMC? Teach ACLS? Just curious.

What do you specifically like about this subset of patients?

Thanks so much in advance for your feedback!

Personally, I like CCU because I love all things cardiac. However, if one doesn't like cardiac or doesn't understand it, then they would probably be miserable. Alot of it is routine and we have lots of chronic pts, and sometimes its not always as exciting or dramatic as, say for example, trauma. However with a cardiac pt, sometimes they can go bad without warning, so you always have to stay on your toes. Sometimes the work can be intricate, especially if you are trying to balance the right amount of several IV medications. It can be frustrating to see the same noncompliant pts over and over, and I find myself doing alot of teaching (don't smoke, don't do cocaine, eat right, exercise, yada yada yada).

In my unit, as well as many other CCU's that I know of, there is also a fair amount of overflow from other ICU's. We often get trauma, neuro, and lots of medical pts - in addition to our cardiac population. This seems to happen more often in our CCU than any of the other ICU's. Alot of ppl I work with complain about this, but I feel it makes me a better nurse bc it helps me to kinda be a jack-of-all-trades, and I enjoy the variety.

As far as CCRN, you can achieve that status in any ICU in which you decide to work. However, alot of the test focuses on cardiac. CMC is a subspecialty of CCRN that focuses almost solely on cardiac, hence the name Cardiac Medicine Certification.

Personally speaking, I don't know if there is really a "next step" for me, unless I wanted to be a manager or educator or go to CRNA school. None of those ideas sound good to me, and the last thing I would want is to be stuck at a desk job, making new rules and policies and more paperwork I guess I'm happy where I'm at in life. This is it for me. I hope I'm always involved in bedside nursing, especially cardiac nursing.

Hope this helps

Jim

Personally, I like CCU because I love all things cardiac. However, if one doesn't like cardiac or doesn't understand it, then they would probably be miserable. Alot of it is routine and we have lots of chronic pts, and sometimes its not always as exciting or dramatic as, say for example, trauma. However with a cardiac pt, sometimes they can go bad without warning, so you always have to stay on your toes. Sometimes the work can be intricate, especially if you are trying to balance the right amount of several IV medications. It can be frustrating to see the same noncompliant pts over and over, and I find myself doing alot of teaching (don't smoke, don't do cocaine, eat right, exercise, yada yada yada).

In my unit, as well as many other CCU's that I know of, there is also a fair amount of overflow from other ICU's. We often get trauma, neuro, and lots of medical pts - in addition to our cardiac population. This seems to happen more often in our CCU than any of the other ICU's. Alot of ppl I work with complain about this, but I feel it makes me a better nurse bc it helps me to kinda be a jack-of-all-trades, and I enjoy the variety.

As far as CCRN, you can achieve that status in any ICU in which you decide to work. However, alot of the test focuses on cardiac. CMC is a subspecialty of CCRN that focuses almost solely on cardiac, hence the name Cardiac Medicine Certification.

Personally speaking, I don't know if there is really a "next step" for me, unless I wanted to be a manager or educator or go to CRNA school. None of those ideas sound good to me, and the last thing I would want is to be stuck at a desk job, making new rules and policies and more paperwork I guess I'm happy where I'm at in life. This is it for me. I hope I'm always involved in bedside nursing, especially cardiac nursing.

Hope this helps

Jim

Jim...Thank you so much for your response - very helpful indeed! Your comments helped me to crystallize the idea of what I thought CCU would be like. As for the chronic patients, well, we certainly get our fair share on a M/S floor - it's like a second home to some of them!

I guess I'm just thinking about my interview tomorrow, wondering, when asked the question why I want to do cardiac nursing if just saying that the cardiac system is absolutely fascinating to me is really a good enough reason. Sorry, if I don't make sense...just worked a 12 hour shift.

I just really want this job SOOO BAD!!!!!

Thanks again for your input! Have a great night!

NurseCherlove--good luck on your interview. I've worked in a CVICU for over 6 years now and wouldn't think of doing any other specialty. I realized back in nursing school that I wanted to work in critical care and once I began working in ICU I realized my final destination would be cardiac critical care. In my particular unit I've been able to create strong working relationships with many of the cardiologists and cardiac and thoracic surgeons. The result has is being given a great deal of autonomy in caring for their patients. With this privilege comes great satisfaction but also more responsibility then many other jobs you could have as an RN. The patients can be routine at times but there are always surprises just when you get foolish enough to get complacent. The learning curve is gigantic and I always go to work thinking that I can learn something new today.

I called CCU home for 12+ years of my 18 year career. I began teaching BCLS & ACLS (then later PALS) in my 3rd year as an RN. I got my Board Cert in CV Nursing 5 years ago as a way to increase my pay & verify my excellence in my field of the time. I liked my autonomy of working night charge in CCU. I could handle emergencies, help the step down units & house supervisors & ER with my experience, answer questions for other units who may have our overflow. I have since moved on to ER, then back to CCU & now Private practice & PACU (2 different jobs). My old CCU still asks me weekly to come up & trouble shoot, show inexperienced nurses pearls of wisdom & the cardiologist still comment to me that they wish I would reconsider coming back to the CCU. My CCU experience helped me in ER (when holding patients for a while) & now in PACU since we have to hold patients when beds are at a premium in our busy season, winter/spring. A very good experience overall.