Any nurse can prevent dehumanization by the CCU experience.

This presentation deals with the Air Force Nurse as a movice assigned to a CCU area and her contributions to patient care as a member of the Air Force Health Care Team. The novice nurse's contributions to the patients care lie in her ability to manage expected behavioral responses to the CCU experience even with a basic working knowledge of normal sinus rhythm and CPR procedure. The expected responses to the CCU expereince discussed are: anxiety, denial, depression, and aggressive sexual behavior. These usual behavioral responses have, at times, been referred to as "a disease of medical progress" or the so-called "intensive care syndrome". The nurse is in a key position to observe the patient's behavioral responses since she spends most of the time with the patient. When these behavioral patterns are considered as part of a normal patterns of adaptation, the nurse can utilize these for effective management of the patient's hospitalization experience as well as an indicator to the patient standpoint in his process of adaptation. It would be wise to mention that the detailed manifestations and primary causes of these behavioral responses should be part of the nurse's working knowledge and can be easily referred to in recent texts on coronary care nursing. The presentation progresses to specific discussion on nursing intervention of the behavioral responses. In summary, the Air Force novice nurse to a CCU area can be an equally contributory member on the Health Care Team if not compelled to place an exaggerated amount of attention on equipment, but focus more on the patient, leaving more technical learning until she becomes more aware of the unit administration and has the opportunity to attend a coronary training course.