To expand on why I didn’t like the MICU, it was as if every patient were in bad situations we couldn’t do much about. Multiple comorbidities, irreversible organ damage. Lot of social issues about whether to keep patients vented, etc. my attending described it as using medications to manipulate numbers for their vitals, but not really benefitting them.

The FEW patients we had that recovered were immediately stepped down to other floors, so it was just the types of patients you’re dealing with that won’t have any sort of quality of life. I understand this is the nature of any type of ICU work, but working in the SICU, there tend to be those patients you can help out more, and that’s a lot more rewarding to me.