I am looking to learn new things and expand my skills as a RN, so I have two CVICU interviews at large teaching hospitals coming up within the next nine days! I am excited about these opportunities, but I am also a little apprehensive about this patient population. Both of these units specify that their primary patient population is open hearts.
I have some questions. As a current MICU RN, my absolute favorite patients are sedated, ventilated, and unstable, and I am even happier when they stay that way the entire three nights I work with them. I know hearts are that way at first, but I also know that the recommendation is to pull the ETT as soon as possible and even have the patients up and walking the next day if able, so it doesn't seem like they stay critically unstable for long, at least when things go as planned.
How sick is the average patient where you work, and for how long do they stay that sick? What is the patient turnover like - are you more likely to have the same patient three days in a row, or is it more common to send them on their way to tele/stepdown quickly? How long does the average patient stay on the vent? Is there a pretty even mix of scheduled and emergent procedures? What do you see the most of, anyway? Valve replacement? CABG? Cath that turned into a CABG? Aortic aneurysms? Something else?
I know all of this is very subjective and experiences vary a lot from one shift to the next, but I am looking for what you experience most often as I am trying to figure out if I am really going to like working in the CVICU, and also what I should familiarize myself with before the interviews. Thanks so much for your help. ?
