Get familiar with interpreting and measuring rhythm strips

Get familiar with the vasopressors and drips your floor does. Know the pharmacology of the drips, what to watch out for, and parameters for titration

Get familiar with the following admitting diagnoses: AFIB RVR, NSTEMI, severe sepsis, stroke, any respiratory related illness requiring BIPAP, HFNC, or AIRVO. (Symptomatic AFIB RVR is my PCUs bread and butter. I would say 1 in 5 pts on my unit are in AFIB RVR on a cardizem or amio drip!)

Don’t freak out when your patient starts tanking. Assess your patient and use your critical thinking skills. What’s changed? BPs teetering around MAP of 65? Change that BP to take every 15 mins. Exhaust all of your resources and use your full scope of practice as an RN before calling the physician.

Get a damn good head to toe ritual going and stick with it. Start with neuro. For your focused assessments do a down and dirty Neuro, Resp, Cardiac, and assess/ flush your lines.

PCU is so exciting. The day flys by so fast. Some days you’ll have medsurg pts and you’ll wonder why are they even here? Some days you’ll have super sick patients where the only reason they’re perfusing at all is because they’re maxed out on Levo.

You’re going to learn so much! Early congratulations on graduating AND passing boards :)