Transitioning to ICU-which to choose

Specialties Critical

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Looking for feedback opinions on jobs in different ICU’s. My hospital has several.. MICU/sicu.. trauma ,cvicu, neuro etc. I love cardiac and want to learn more so I was leaning towards the cvicu.. but there is also a float pool which I thought might be a way to learn a lot across the board, make myself more marketable in the future should the opportunity arise. I did read a post about floating between icus which did give me some insight.. thinking it wouldnt be bad to settle into one unit and going from there. Does anyone think its better to start off in say a MICU/sicu to get the critical care fundamentals down and then eventually go to cvicu? Or will I see a range of things in the cvicu not just limited to cardic related pts? Im in no rush to make a move .. currently in med surg now still learning something new every day I just kind of want an idea so if the opportunity presents itself I won’t hesitate. Thank you and I appreciate the feedback in advance !

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Specializes in New Critical care NP, Critical care, Med-surg, LTC.

I work in a smaller community hospital. My critical care is one unit, 12 beds. So we get a little bit of everything. The pneumonia, COPD, detox, surgeries, sepsis, stroke post tPA, etc. We don't do caths at our hospital and complex neuro cases are also shipped out. I think that MICU is a great place to start and get the basics down before moving onto a more specialized unit. Also, you may find that you find another patient population equally interesting as cardiac patients if you start out in a broader scope unit. But if you know that cardiac is where your interest lies and the CVICU is willing to take someone without critical care, you could go for it. I might caution against float pool, and I don't think many will take you into critical float pool without experience. The nurses in the float pool (in my understanding from a bigger hospital in our system) are generally expected to be able to fill in everywhere without needing much support. 

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Thank you ! I appreciate your feedback ?

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