Nurse_bre

Hello all, I am currently going through the orientation process at a CVICU. I have one year experience on a med-surg tele floor. I am absolutely terrified when I'm on the unit. So many different equipment, lines, diagnoses and a whole new way of doing things. I was wondering if anyone had any tips on how to organize your day when you have what it seems like endless charting to do. On my unit, you can have up to 2 "stable" ICU patients. You do vitals, check IVs, check the monitor hourly, assess every 4 hours including a head-toe, measure CVP, I/O (unless foley then its hourly) and pacer settings. Stable LVAD is every 2 hours. If you have a patient with ECMO, IABP, CRRT, fresh cardiac surgery or a fresh LVAD... you only have 1 patient since everything you do is hourly or less documentation. They also want you to do a CHG bath daily, lotion the patient down, etc. (we do not employ aides on this unit) Then of course I have medications to give, labs to draw, other care in between. I feel like no matter how I try to consolidate, I always have something to chart and I'm always behind. (And this is me coming from a med-surg unit with 6 patients and having everything done by 10am) Any recommendations? Advice? Support?

I recently had an interview at a CVICU and I agree with the above answers. They really do want to know more about you, your personality, how you handle conflict with patients, family members, co-workers and other members of the team. They wanted to know how I participated on the unit I was coming from. The nurse educator also sat in the interview and had asked me a clinical question as well in regards to cardiac care, for example: "you have a patient c/o of chest pain and abnormal ECG changes, what would you do and what are you expecting?". She also went deeper in the questions by asking "if you see ECG changes in leads ..... , what area of the heart is being affected?" I thought I bombed my interview but I got the job and I'm on orientation currently. Good Luck : )

I loved your story and identify many of the same struggles I face at work. What I lack most is consistency and I like how your training schedule was set up. Could you give me ideas on how to fit in training, meals and meal prep while working 3 12 hour 7-7 day shifts and a 1 hour commute?

I LOVED the VALOR program. I did the program the summer after my junior year. I learned a lot more there than I had in clinicals. I worked in the ICU and my nurse preceptors were so knowledgeable and eager to teach. I was not a glorified CNA at all, I actually got to use some of my delegating skills for practice! I functioned as a nurse, charting assessments, giving medications while supervised, of course. Practiced IV insertion, how to admit/discharge patients. I even got to tag along to rapid response calls. I highly recommend this program. Now after graduation I didn't apply to the VA but it's definitely an option in the future.