The ICU Experience

The Beauty of inpatient medicine isn't restricted to the pay, hours, days off, or lack of call.  In modern American society, the typical hospitalized patient is actually sick, and really does need the care of a physician . Hence, the majority of attitude-related BS that is displayed by the patients in "Chinese pager torture" is eliminated from your life. The deeper you can nest yourself in a hospital, the more you can insulate yourself from these non-patients. An intensivist job is the best one on the planet, because they closer one is to death, the better their attitude.--Unknown Author.

I couldn't agree with that more. I love working in the ICU. It is challenging.  Actually, ICU care is very challenging. You have extreme presentations of common diseases. While the ICU can be an exercise in futility it can also be a very rewarding experience as well when  young healthy patients get critically ill fast and we can recover them back to their base line functional status.

The ICU can be adrenaline rushing. It is the strength of physician level training that comes through in the ICU setting. It is the discussions regarding medical management with highly competent nurses that know their stuff that makes it even more fulfilling.

The ICU experience is probably my favorite part of being a hospitalist. If my ICU ever closed to hospitalists, I would jump ship in a heart beat. It is a part of what I do. It is one of the most fulfilling parts of my experience as a hospitalist.