CVICU Travel Nursing Jobs

Higher rates of heart disease, sedentary lifestyles, and poor diets means the need for more cardiovascular surgeries and procedures. In turn, that means that demand is consistently high for CVICU nurses and other healthcare professionals to work in the cardiovascular intensive care unit, and that means there are many high-paying CVICU travel nursing jobs in exciting locations nationwide!

CVICU Travel Nursing Careers

A career as a CVICU travel nurse is a great way for you to avoid nurse burnout — the job is still demanding, but the variety of locations and facilities can help keep you fresher on your feet and more motivated. It’s also a great way to continue to sharpen your skills, gain key experience, and build your resume. When you travel with Medical Solutions, you’ll also earn great money and have great benefits.

To be successful working in the CVICU you must be practiced in your clinical skills, highly adaptable, proficient at technology as well as basic nursing care, able to keenly assess patients, extremely compassionate, and able to function well in a high-stress environment. You never know quite what to expect in CVICU and you must be there for patients and families at a very stressful, scary time. Despite the fast-paced environment, it’s critical for CVICU nurses to maintain their composure and deliver compassionate care in this critical setting.

A CVICU nurse’s goal is to care for patients directly following open-heart surgery and other such major cardiovascular surgeries and procedures (see below). They work with state-of-the-art technological devices to monitor a patient’s condition, help the patient stabilize, and help them recover. Much monitoring and documentation goes into this important job. CVICU nurses must also train patients, family, and caregivers on post-op care and suggest lifestyle changes that may promote a healthier lifestyle in the future and hopefully avoid further illness.

Who Works in the CVICU?

A wide range of healthcare professionals work in the cardiovascular intensive care unit in order to best serve the patients there. CVICU team members can include CVICU RNs and CCRNs, CVICU aides, techs, intensivists, cardiologists, anesthesiologists, critical care medicine specialists, acute care surgeons, nurse practitioners, physical therapists, administrative staff, and social workers/case managers.

Who’s Treated in the CVICU?

Patients here require intensive care related to their cardiac health — most typically this is care for the critically ill suffering from cardiac, thoracic, and vascular surgical issues and recovery. They could need care following open heart surgery, heart transplants, abdominal aortic aneurysm, ventricular assist device implants, coronary artery bypass grafting, EVAR, TEVAR, other chest surgeries, aortic vascular surgeries, lung transplantation, esophageal surgery, and more.

Quick CVICU Facts

• Commonly required CVICU RN education: Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) and/or Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN), plus passing the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX)
• Commonly required CVICU certifications: Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS), Basic Life Support (BLS)
• Commonly preferred CVICU certifications: Crisis Prevention Intervention (CPI), Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), CCRN
• Commonly required experience to become a travel CVICU RN: Facilities typically require a minimum of two years of recent, in-hospital experience in order to hire you as an CVICU travel nurse. You’ll want the benefit of experience since travel nurses have to hit the ground running!
• Average annual CVICU RN salary range: $65,500-$118,000
• Locations where travel CVICU RNs are in high demand: Demand for CVICU RNs is growing nationwide! California, Washington, Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, and Alaska reflect high demand with higher average CVICU RN salaries.