hi everyone,

Im currently looking for nursing jobs after taking some leave to go travelling. I have applied for a position at a hospital in Neuro Intensive Care and would like some advice from anyone who may have had previous experience in this area. What are the conditions you ave experienced whilst working in a neuro ITU unit, can you recommend any useful reading to do and any further general advice or information. I have never worked in an ITU setting before and have concerns about working in a specialist ITU unit before getting any general ITU experience.

I would be very grateful if anyone could get back to me with any information,

does ITU stand for interventional tele unit?

no, it stands for intensive care

oh Ive only heard ICU heh ok.

I see mostly SAH, ICH, SDH, and ischemic stroke.

be very familiar with the NIH Stroke Scale. Make sure you have a good understanding of the patho and treatment and complications of the various types of strokes, common brain masses, and trauma.

be familiar with the signs of herniation, use of mannitol/3% sodium, cerebral salt wasting, SIADH/DI etc.

be comfortable with hypertensive management using continuous drips such as cardene, ntg, nitroprusside and prns like hydralazine and labatalol. be familiar with TPA too.

Also get to know how ventriculostomies work and are managed.

how's that for a list of things to learn to start you off? Im sure some others will have more to add. The american stroke association and uptodate.com are good resources.

Thank you for your help, its much appreciated. I better start studying lol.