Surgical Trauma ICU vs SICU

Advanced Practice Columnist / Guide · Sep 29, 2020

That will vary within different hospitals. Surgical/Trauma ICU's may have a combination of Trauma admissions (traumatic injuries such as gunshot wounds, motor vehicle crashes, pedestrian accidents, falls) along with the usual Surgical ICU patient population (abdominal surgery disasters, abdominal sepsis from hepatic, pancreatic, and biliary disorders requiring surgical management, abdominal organ transplants, unstable surgical oncology patients, etc). Some institutions separate Trauma from the bread and butter Surgical ICU patients depending on the volume of cases.

tinysnailRN, BSN, RN · Sep 30, 2020

On 9/29/2020 at 12:48 PM, juan de la cruz said:

That will vary within different hospitals. Surgical/Trauma ICU's may have a combination of Trauma admissions (traumatic injuries such as gunshot wounds, motor vehicle crashes, pedestrian accidents, falls) along with the usual Surgical ICU patient population (abdominal surgery disasters, abdominal sepsis from hepatic, pancreatic, and biliary disorders requiring surgical management, abdominal organ transplants, unstable surgical oncology patients, etc). Some institutions separate Trauma from the bread and butter Surgical ICU patients depending on the volume of cases.

Awesome, thank you for replying! I had it the other way around - in my facility, there is only the Surgical ICU, BUT it is a Level 1 Trauma center so I assumed it was an umbrella term for Surgical/Trauma ICU as well!

PaSSiNGaS, MSN · Mar 8, 2021

If you were hired at a SICU at a large level 1 trauma that will probably be the best experience you could get. Especially if they recover hearts in the SICU. Great experience if you ever consider CRNA school as well.