jezlynh

Oh and I forgot that in the midst of all this I am doing a lot of documenting in the computer.

I work on a cardiac critical care unit that admits and recovers pts going for various cardiac/IR procedures. I usually have about 6 pts throughout the day unless i am paired with only 2 because they have a swan. I'm basically running around for the entire 12 hr shift. Come in, get report, quickly peak in on my patients and introduce myself if they are awake. Check labs, vitals and for any overdue meds. Coffee. Pulls meds from supply station, make sure all meds are there if not order them from Pharmacy. Go back into pts rooms, fully assess them let them know what plan for the day is. Check Vitals and accuchecks (sometimes done by tech). Administer morning meds. Deliver breakfast (sometimes done by tech). Do am care like baths, oral care etc. Meet with MD's and residents and report any abnormal findings, address any concerns. If they don't come around by 9 and I need to notify them of something I call them. Then I begin the discharge process which whatever pts are discharged. Go over instructions, make sure they have prescriptions they need etc. then around 11am pts start coming out of their procedures like angiograms/ pacemaker insertions, IR procedures so I am recovering them which involves q15 min vitals and frequent site checks of their incisions. And most of the rest of the day is spent recovering people from various procedures, checking labs, ekg's and giving meds and notifying MD of any abnormalities and calling MDs to give me orders.

I can tell you that I felt the exact same way as you. I did one year in the CVICU and when I realized that I was always going to dread going to work everyday I transferred back to an outpatient cardiac unit. In my opinion if this doesn't get better for you and you don't feel that it is something you want then don't torture yourself. Take it as a great learning experience and move on. Good luck to you!

You will never feel ready. It's normal.

I work at a very large hospital ranked in top #5 in country for CT surgery. We are instructed to strip chest tubes immediately after heart surgery. I agree with previous posts...I have never seen any harm come from stripping CT'S, only from them clotting off.