Vylince

I recommend looking closely at all the hospitals and make sure you get into an environment that you will be happy in. My hospital is currently losing great RN's because the upper management is really into micro-management and abuse of its nurses right now. It is a very sad time.

Thanks for your input! I'm so tempted, I love AZ!

I agree with the previous reply, a nurse to patient ratio of 1:7 is not a PCU ratio that is acceptable. 1:3-4 is about the max I would ever accept!

Hello to my nurse friends out there in Arizona! I currently work in Indiana in a Cardiovascular ICU and am getting burnt out extremely fast due to the hospitals freaking out over reimbursements and cost cutting. My hospital just laid off a ton of people and expects the current staff to pick up the slack. I've been a nurse for 11 years, and this change is a killer. So! I currently am considering an ICU position option in Arizona, right now in Phoenix, but I don't want to leave one mess to hop into another. Any opinions out there?

I currently work as a bedside/charge nurse in cardiovascular critical care, and we love our students! As already stated, you will have a chance at seeing every type of ICU patient under the sun on CV. Our students love how broad-spectrum our patients are! Open-hearts are the majority of our patient load, some units include heart transplants, lung transplants and VADS. My best advice to you is to tuck that anxiety under your belt and jump in! Check out the different types of machines (CRRT, arctic suns, VADS) and the plethora of lines (Pulmonary Artery caths, SVV monitors, lumbar drains). Enjoy the experience, and use your staff nurse for all the info you could ever need!