I finished another short run through the MICU. It's what I want to do. For me it is the most bang-for-the-buck, in terms of learning and thinking, in terms of intervention, in terms of patient/nurse/doctor interaction. When you are working a 30 hour shift, and you know that your active patients aren't going to let you sleep much if at all, might as well be busy instead of sitting around repleting potassium. That said, it inevitably comes with soul-crushing disasters: sad stories, sadder families, a feeling of utter powerlessness in the face of overwhelming disease.
It is one thing being busy overnight. It is another being busy and dealing with a flaming trainwreck of a code and then having to wake up a husband and tell them that their wife died. But it comes with the job. I guess some people have to suction septic tanks. We get that.
We get good at having a firm grasp on patients and their diseases. The MICU is the place where that grip is constantly challenged. It's a bad feeling to not be able to get your hands around a new admit. It's far worse to have someone slip out. And I'm on a bad run of that.
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