AvaRN_ICU

You are way past needing a new job. It is hard to make the change but once you do, you will be happier. I worked on a very busy cardiac unit with 1:6 ratios for the last three years. Loved it at first but after years, I realized I had much less patience than I used to, I was over worked, I was annoyed by everything and I was becoming negative. I realized it was time to move on. The only reason I stayed so long was my amazing coworkers! Now I am in the ICU in the same hospital and have much more job satisfaction. I recommend you take a few days off to give yourself a small respite and take that time to think about what you would enjoy doing. Maybe a move to a different type of unit inside the same hospital, or a new hospital altogether. Or maybe even a different setting ex: hospice. Think about what you do not like about your current job and make sure you will change that in your next one. (Ex: I was over having 6 pts with high turnover, I.e. soo many discharges and admits in a day, and seeing the same types of pts day after day, I wanted to learn more. The ICU has given me 1-2 pts daily and I have seen more in less than one year than I have in my entire nursing career, plus we have way better staffing). Good luck, I hope you find what your looking for!!

I agree with the first posts saying you definitely don’t HAVE to. Buuut if you wanted to, I would say just cardiac related things -cardiac drips such as: heparin, cardizem, amiodarone, integrilin, nitro, etc. -some basic anatomy and physiology of the cardiovascular system -brush up on common cardiac diagnosis’s like CHF. just the basics so that you are able to answer questions and educate patients -common cardiac meds so you know why you are giving them- beta blockers, antiplatelets, anticoagulants, digoxin, flecanide, etc. But again, you really don’t have to! As a new grad you are not expected to know everything just be willing to learn and ask questions! Good luck. I started on a cardiac floor and it taught me so much!

I say definitely apply for a job in the hospital if you are feeling unfulfilled at the nursing home and becoming more confident in your basic nursing skills. But I would warn you that in my experience cardiac/telemetry units are the most hectic/dumped on units in the hospital, so be prepared for that. I started out on a cardiac/tele unit and that type of unit is somewhere in between med/surg and a cardiac step down unit. We got cardiac drips (nitro, cardizem, integrilin, amio, heparin etc.), chest tubes, post cath lab patients etc. that med/surg floors cannot take BUT we had the same patient ratios as the med/surg floor (1:6). It didn’t make much sense because it was clearly a step up in acuity. When you have patients that just came back from cath lab and need q15 min vitals or your deflating a TR band there isn’t much time for your other 5 patients. Or even when you start getting up to 4-6 heparin drips that you have to manage q6 hours it can be a lot. Cardiac floors also have a high turnover with patients so you will have a lot of discharges and admits!! On top of being a cardiac floor, they will also treat you as a med/surg floor. So, you will get every type of patient there is, it can be a good thing as a new grad because you get to see a lot and learn a lot. But when you’re working a cardiac floor and you have zero cardiac patients it can be frustrating. I say go for it if you are wanting to get into cardiac but just be prepared for a very high paced environment. GOOD LUCK! And remember you can only go as fast as you can go on these crazy floors. That’s literally all you can do so just try to stay calm and tackle things one by one based on priority.

This reply is a little late but... As a new grad that is finishing up my first year on a cardiac floor I can tell you what I felt like I needed to study. Most obviously cardiac rhythms and interventions for each oneCardiac drugs, especially cardiac drips (cardizem, amio, nitro, heparin) I needed to really review all the pathophysiology of cardiac issues in depth. Review conditions such as CHF, endocarditis, heart valve dysfunction, MI, etc. Review causes, signs and symptoms, interventions, medications and treatments for each. Many patients will ask you questions about their conditions and there’s nothing worse than feeling like you do not have an appropriate answer haha We get a lot of cath lab patients on our floor and I didn’t learn much about this in school so this would be another good thing to reviewI hope you are having a good experience so far!! Good Luck!!

I am a new grad working on a cardiac telemetry floor. Things we can do that med/surg telemetry floors cannot: cardiac drips (cardizem, amiodarone, nitro, heparin), care for post cath lab patients, chest tubes, etc. Essentially it’s just another step up in acuity with a focus on cardiac. If you are interested in cardiac at all, you should choose the cardiac floor over the med/surg floor because you will see everything that you would on a med/surg floor and more. Any patient that has a cardiac history is coming to our floor even if they are admitted for an unrelated problem. Also, if the med/surg telemetry floor is full, cardiac telemetry is the floor that will get their overflow so sometimes the cardiac floor can feel like a med/surg floor. Within my first few months on the cardiac floor I had done foleys, NG tubes, LOTS of IV’s and more. You get plenty of opportunities to improve your skills! Also, the cardiac floor will look better than med/surg on your resume if you are considering CVICU or really any floor just because cardiac is a higher level of acuity.