New grad to CVICU?

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I will graduate as an RN in December and have been offered a position in a CVICU upon graduation. I externed in the unit during the summer and loved it.

The only problem is the position is on the night shift for at least 6 months. I did nights for a while during the summer and it was really hard on my body.

Do most ICU departments hire new grads on nights or would I have a chance at a day shift somewhere else? Any advice would be most appreciated.

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Specializes in Critical Care; ICU; CCU.

It isn't easy to get a day job in CVICU as a new grad, but it can happen. It happened for a lot of new grads at our hospital last year. I think it is partially r/t luck, timing and need of day shift personnel.

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Could you explain a little of what goes on at night in CVICU? I've been on Tele floors and PCUs before and the nights are often reallly slow

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Well, it's definitely quieter at nights with a lot less new admits but there is still a lot going on. Bed baths are given at some point during the night (nurses discretion). Apart from that it's the same as during the day: dressing changes, vs monitoring, med admin., hemodynamic & cardiac monitoring,

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Specializes in CVICU, ICU, RRT, CVPACU.

Our unit primarily hires new grads onto nights so that they can get some experience taking hearts that arent right out of surgery, but maybe several hours post-op which sometimes makes a difference and sometimes doesnt. The primary differences between days and nights are the doctors rounding, procedures being performed and recoveries comming out of surgery. The part about nights that I always hated is calling a surgeon at 2 am who, even ona good day, is an *******. Overall, it is some of the best experience you will gain and you will be forced to learn wheater you want to or not due to the environment.

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Specializes in Cardiac Surgical Recovery, Critical Care.

Most new grad positions are for nights. You can, at least, earn a bit more money to pay off school loans! I have found the clinical management of the patient at night often more discreet on the day of surgery, doing the final dialing in of the patient to optimize hemodynamics and such based on an individual patient's cardiac function. While fresh admits have there own set of challenges, it is often not the best learning environment for the new practitioner to learn in. It moves very quickly and the new practitioner will find themselves being reactive rather than being proactive. We've recently had a few in our unit and I am not overly impressed with the result. They seem to manage by rote and not by knowledge. Oddly enough, despite the fact the the Day shift does the bulk of precepting a new person, I have not found that they are particularly good at following up with good clinical teaching that the Night shift is so good at. The care is the same except for no scheduled admits and no weaning of patients on longer term ventilation being managed by Pulmonary. We continue our regular extubation protocol 24 hours a day. There is far less opportunity for collaborative interdisciplinary stuff with the docs and some other disciplines as this goes on in the daytime and interaction with the family will often be less as, hopefully, they feel comfortable enough to go home. This does provide an environment that allows the new practitioner more space to learn from experienced colleagues. After 28 years of Cardiac Surgery, most of which has been on Nights by choice, I can tell you that a top flight RN on Night shift is worth its weight in gold to an intelligent Cardiac Surgeon and the good ones know it.

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Specializes in CCRN-CMC-CSC: CTICU, MICU, SICU, TRAUMA.

Take the night job on CVICU, get your orientation and then move down to days on that unit, or another, or at another facility after you have your experience if you need days...I have seen nurses who wanted days remain on nights because they prefer them... there is an advantage to new grads starting nights... days are busier... they just are... not that nights can't be incredibly busy... but days have rounds, consults, tests, imaging studies, procedures, meals, visitors, allied health consults, etc. etc. etc... I started on days... I stayed on days... but there is no time to really go through a chart, thoroughly analyze history, progress notes, surgical reports, etc... as a new nurse developing critical thinking and assessment skills, you are at an advantage if you can take half an hour and have the luxury of going through this information and putting it all together... you will learn a great deal by assimilating the information in the chart with the real time hemodynamics of the pt you are assigned to...nights will give you more time to look things up, answer questions thoroughly, and focus on the patient rather than all the goings on of the day shift... just me opinion, I expect others will disagree... but that's the way it is on our unit... we are a combination of CTICU and CCU...

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Specializes in cardiac surgical icu.

Hi, I work nights in CSICU and I love it, would not trade it for anything!!! Maybe I am a little biased but our night nurses are the BEST. And I think you have to be at night because usually it's just the nurses, occ. the PAs hang around but not usually. It is a good chance to learn because things are quieter but not slower, IMO. There are still things to be done: outputs, titrating gtts, weaning/extubating, pulling Swans/A-lines. There is a lot of pressure on the night shift to get the patient up and ready to transfer, to get ready for the new cases. I love the pace, but more importantly love the nurses I work with. I have only been a nurse a few years so I rely on the experienced nurses to guide me and back me up when necessary. I know that one day I will be as good a nurse as they are because of what I have learned working on nights. And that's how I feel about that!!! :)

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Watch out CVICU sick people! I'll be making helping you feel better this January 5th! Just graduated and made it through the labrynth :banghead:, hellfire :devil:, Texas Chainsaw Massacre :eek:, Jamestown :no:, Cedar-Sinai :imbar that is Nursing school!

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I am a new grad who just accepted a position in a CCU where they only offer a 14 week orientation so I hope I can extend if need be! I am nervous but excited--wondering if there is anything I can be doing to prepare as I have been out of school for about three months and feel a little rusty

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