Hospital Units with Longest patient stays

[TarheelGirlx3]

Hi everyone,

I am currently a BSN student. I have worked as a CNA in both an assisted living facility and a hospital. I actually enjoy the long-term relationships developed in an assisted living facility versus the quick turnaround in the medical surgical unit of my local community hospital. My question is is which hospital units have longer patient stays and the opportunity to really get to know the patients? I like working with infants and children but I also work well with the geriatric population. Thoughts anyone?

[s0ad]

I'll vote oncology as well. We're also a med-surg floor, so have a variety of patients. But our oncology patients come in often, and many of them are there for a while. The sad thing is seeing them pass away though, as many do. But hey, some of them do get better, at least for a while.

[ShantheRN, BSN, RN]

You can get hired as a new grad to peds oncology. Just be prepared to hit the ground running. I was a PCA on my floor for two years so I had the advantage of knowing the families. But still....I had a lot of learning to do. I love it, though. We tend to have lots of social issues and I think that's more taxing than dealing with the disease process sometimes. We do care teams but if I am feeling particularly frustrated with a family (I swear I always get put on the looney families' teams lol) I will ask for a different assignment. It's a rewarding job but it can get to you.

[CrazierThanYou]

At my hospital, oncology gets a lot of frequent fliers with extended stays. Naturally. Renal has mostly frequent fliers. Trauma and neuroscience also gets some long term patients.