Med/Surg vs LTAC

[hlfpnt, BSN, RN]

Hello all!

I am a new nurse just looking for some feed back on a couple of questions. My ultimate goal for my career is CVICU. During school I kept hearing that Med/Surg experience is prefered for the specialty units. Well, during clinicals I had decided that I really didn't want this, but knew I still needed time management experience. I also knew I didn't want to jump right into ICU without any kind of experince or confidence. So, I chose a long term acute care facility for my first year in nursing & have been there for almost 4 1/2 months. Our nurse/pt ratio is 6-7:1. The majority of our pts are multisystem failure & ventilator dependent with multiple lines, tubes, & drains. My main question is this...is this good place to start vs the Med/surg setting? Also, what else can I do to prepare myself for CVICU? I have books that I'm reading & studying & will be getting my ACLS through my current job, but do I need experience in other areas of nursing as well?

Any & all replies are welcome...thanks! :)

[EmerNurse, BSN, RN]

My first nursing job was an LTAC for about 18 months before I moved to ER. I've never worked a regular med surg floor - used to refer to the LTAC as Advanced Med-surg for the acuity of the patients we had, including heparin and cardizem ggts, intricate wound care and unusual diagnoses. Had a patient there for a year with pyroderma gangranosum! She almost died 3 times during that year but she walked out of there on her own!

I can't speak for LTAC vs. regular med-surg but I will NEVER regret the education and experience I got at that small 29-bed LTAC. Everything I learned there, I use every day now and then some!

Good luck!