[kaeky]

what is a bone marrow transplant floor like? is it a specialty or med/surg? Do all hospitals have this unit?? Is it high acuity?

[sggirl]

In a Bone Marrow Transplant, a client's diseased or malfunctioning bone marrow is purposefully destroyed by chemotherapy or radiation or both. Healthy marrow is then infused( similar to a blood transfusion) into the patient's bloodstream. The most common diseases where bone marrow transplant is an option are Leukemia,Lymphoma, Aplastic anemia, and some solid tumor cancers. There are several types of Bone Marrow Transplants. Allogeneic is a transplant where client recieves marrow from related or unrelated donor. With Autologous transplant, client's recieves own marrow when their disease is in remission. Syngeneic transplant comes from an identical twin.
Bone Marrow Transplant is a subspecialty of Oncology Nursing/ Requires highly specilaized team of doctors and nurses. Usually only larger hospitals or hospitals that specialize in Cancer have these units. Allogeneic Transplant units have acuities similar to ICU and usually require critical care experience.
Bone Marrow Transplant units use standing orders to manage known side effects that can occur- anemia/infection/bleeding/graft versus host disease/Veno-occlusive disease etc. Training is this specialty is well structured and ongoing. I found it to be extremely rewarding to work in this specialty.
Hope this helps.