Back in the Saddle

After a summer of outpatient clinic work and fall clinicals on the psychiatric unit, I am thrilled to be going back to an acute care setting, the coronary care unit. I went up to the ICU yesterday to meet my preceptor and was overwhelmed by my excitement to get back to the bedside. There are machines to learn, complicated diagnoses with comorbidities, and a wealth of medications to master once again. The acute settings are just much more my style right now. I hated sitting around talking to psych patients about how they were feeling (emotionally) without really being able to do anything about it because I was not on their primary medical team and there were no psychiatrists to be found. I really missed the acute nursing care that is required in places like the CCU. I've heard wonderful things about the unit on which I will spend the next seven weeks and am so ready to get back to working with heart patients!