What is a Medical progressive unit?

hellokittypink · May 5, 2009

Where is your externship? My hospital has a medical progressive unit (MPCU). It is a step down unit for pts that are not ready for the regular medical floor but are not sick enough for the medical ICU.

SonicnurseRN · May 5, 2009

Ya ... I worked a progressive unit & it was for cardiac patients that were being closely monitored, but not @ the ICU level. It ended being more of a med-surg floor b/c of census.

The point being, that it is most likely a unit for ppl that are sick, but not really bad.

http://www.nursezone.com/Explore-Travel-Nursing/pcu-progressive-care-unit.aspx

Should be a good place 2 do your externship!

Have fun & relax :bugeyes:

vashtee, RN · May 5, 2009

I work on this floor at my hospital, but it's called "DOU", or "direct observation unit". Many of our patients are downgrades from ICU, and some of them are quite sick. Sometimes they end up back in ICU.

RNperdiem, RN · May 6, 2009

Where I work, the unit is abbreviated MPCU and is the step-down unit where Medical ICU patients spend time before they are considered stable enough to transfer to a medical floor.

The set-up of the unit is identical to the ICU and the nurse patient ratio is 1:3.

The patients are on the same cardiac monitors as ICU, and they may be on certain IV infusions not seen on the floors.

Step-down units tend to be fast paced because patients transfer out quickly and the bed does not stay empty for long.

You will learn lots there, and I wish you the best of luck.