Find us on the Vanderbilt Nursing Website.
Hello and welcome to our unit!
The Medical Intensive Care Unit, also known as the MICU is located on the 9th floor of Jim Ayers Tower at Vanderbilt University Hospital. We have 34 beds and our standard nurse-to-patient ratio is 1-to-2.
The environment on our unit is upbeat and challenging, and it embraces a strong team collaboration with nurses and physicians participating in rounding.
We care for critically ill adult patients ranging in age from 18 years and older who are being treated for acute respiratory failure, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), multisystem organ system failure, sepsis, drug overdoses, gastrointestinal bleeds, diabetic ketoacidosis, hypertensive crisis, acute/chronic renal failure, and liver failure/cirrhosis.
Our patients are unique because of the variety of patients admitted to the MICU which allows for the development of critical thinking and intensive care assessment skills.
One of the perks of working on our unit is the staff’s involvement in clinical research. Seeing practice changes throughout the country based on research done in this unit has encouraged other staff and faculty members to develop new research trials and pilots.
Our nurses are successful because they have strong communication skills to collaborate with other members of the health care team, have the ability to take ownership in shared decision making, and develop a very broad set of skills to care for a wide range of patient diagnoses.
We orient new nurses to our unit by providing an individualized 12-week orientation. New nurses also attend a MICU education day focused on topics specific to the MICU.
Our unit is in the Adult Critical Care Medicine track of the Nurse Residency Program.
Resources
- Charge nurse (one on day shift, one on nights- charge nurse does not have a patient assignment)
- Help-all nurse (floats throughout the shift helping with procedures, admissions, etc.)
- MICU nurse practitioners – present on unit 24/7
- MICU doctors – two teams of attendings, fellows, residents and interns – 24/7 presence on unit
We encourage professional growth
If your career goal is to develop a broad range of critical care skills and knowledge, the Medical Intensive Care Unit provides a strong foundation for learning in a collaborative team environment.
If you have any questions about my unit, email me at levi.wynn@vumc.org or visit Nursing Careers at Vanderbilt to explore open nursing positions.