Our interdisciplinary surgical intensive care unit (known as the IOI) offers patients from all surgical departments at our university hospital with comprehensive and highly specialized care. We focus predominantly on patients from the areas of general surgery, cardiac surgery, trauma surgery and thoracic surgery. In addition, we take care of polytrauma patients, patients suffering from severe cases of sepsis and patients following an organ transplant.
What you can expect from nursing care in the IOI
First and foremost, we care for individual human needs when providing nursing care. The very close collaboration between all professional groups involved in the recovery process on our ward is an essential factor. Not only that, however, our staff also have to be experts in dealing with the cutting-edge technology and apparatus available for treatment on our intensive care ward.
Our expertise
We have the expertise for
- Differentiated ventilation procedures, including the latest procedures for weaning patients off prolonged ventilation support
- Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation – ECMO (in collaboration with the Department of Cardiac Surgery)
- Modern cardiac support procedures (in collaboration with the Department of Cardiac Surgery)
- Using kidney and liver replacement procedures
- Determining myocardium function using echocardiography and extended hemodynamic monitoring
- Monitoring the functions of the central nervous system (EEG, evoked potentials, measuring cerebral pressure)
- Immune monitoring with extensive laboratory tests carried out in an acute care anesthesiology laboratory
What makes us special
We live and breathe interprofessional collaboration and work together in our expert groups to determine treatment standards, for example relating to weaning, nutrition and delirium management. During their first year on the job, we offer colleagues who have just successfully completed their examinations a modular trainee program in addition to the standard onboarding concept offered across Uniklinikum Erlangen.
With our work, we hope to encourage specialist nursing staff to carry on and complete specialist training in intensive care and anesthesiology. An important part of practical training for this qualification takes place on our IOI. Our certified practical instructors support participants during their individual learning progress. We are pleased if former course participants decide to come and work on our ward in the long term. Together with the intermediate care station, our IOI team forms one organizational unit, and is led by a joint management team.
“I decided to work at our university hospital 30 years ago partly because I wanted to complete continued professional training in intensive care/anesthesiology and partly because I wanted to keep improving my knowledge of nursing care. Today, I am in charge of a large team, I am involved in taking decisions and can actually make a difference. In our IOI we work on an equal footing with all disciplines. The opinion of our nursing staff is important and respected. I am glad I decided to work here at Uniklinikum Erlangen, and I would still take the same decision today.”
Mariette Kesch, ward manager, specialist nurse for intensive care/anesthesiology, since 1988 at IOI
“Nursing staff who are curious and are looking for variety in their jobs are in the right place at IOI, as the collaboration between various specialist departments means that we treat a very wide range of patients and conditions. You are constantly faced with new challenges and learn something new every day. In particular, you are never left on your own. The large team at IOI is very special, and I wouldn’t like to be without it. You meet lots of different personalities and it’s always a pleasure to welcome new members to the team. Beginners in particular can benefit from the valuable experience of more experienced colleagues.”
Dora Heller, nurse, at IOI since 2020
Your benefits at UKER
As one of the largest employers in Middle Franconia, we are at the cutting-edge of medicine thanks to our more than 9,600 highly qualified employees in a wide spectrum of different occupations. Our joint success hinges on appreciation of each other’s work and a good work-life balance.
Working at UKER
Outstanding patient care, award-winning research and teaching and cutting-edge medicine is what defines us, Uniklinikum Erlangen We have a clear objective in our sights and are dedicated to do all we can to reach it: carrying out the many and varied tasks of a hospital providing world-class supramaximal medical care.