Health South Rehab Hospital?

The HS I work for is very different than your usual HS. We are Howard A. Rusk Rehabilitation-HealthSouth. We were bought from the univ. of MO. Our docs are univ docs, but nursing and therapy are now HS. So, we run our facility much as it was prior to being bought. We do a lot of team nursing. We have four teams and each team has a primary nurse, an attending, it's own group of therapists, liasons, and case managers.
An RN may charge, pass meds or do tech work or full patient care.
An LPN may charge, pass meds or do tech work as well.
Our techs can do blood sugars, start tube feeds, in and out cath, bladder scan, check NG placement, PEG care.
When I was in NV, the RN would either be house charge, or charge for up to 8 pts and pass their meds (assessments and treatments as well) Lpns would do the same, but not house charge, just charge the smaller group.
CNAs weren't allowed to do much except JUSt general patient care.
There were no teams and no primary nurses. There were case manager RNs but they never worked the floor so truly they didn't even know the patients. Don't get me started on that though I am a fan of team nursing.
I do as an LPN med passing mostly. Where I work if you pass meds, that is ALL you do. If you team lead or charge, you do the RN duties (chart checks, dressing changes, admissions, etc...) AND patient care (LPNs do team lead where I work, and if so, they do not pass meds and I do get a higher pay when I charge). If we tech, we do only patient care. Does that make sense? WE ALL do hands on care where I am. There is no such things as "I am nurse you are not" No higher license. What seperates us is what our state board says we can and cannot do.
ANyway-I LOVE HS. I am trying to move to VA with hubby and will be attempting to transfer internally.

I am now working for a Health South facility, rehab hospital with 80 beds. I just started, so truly cannot say the way it all works, BUT... I am so glad I found this job!! Coming for LTC facility, the difference is amazing and I am thrilled to be here. 80% of our patients go home, which you cannot of course, say about LTC. The atmosphere is positive, the nurses, supportive, and allover I believe I made a wonderful choice. As a rehab nurse we have 6-8 patients, the cnas take care of most of the basic patient care, and we do the meds and treatments. We get more acute patients now than they used too, I am told, and therefore the learning opportunities are better. As a recent grad, I am thrilled with this opportunity. It is a positve atmosphere, people are there to get better, which is what rehabilitation is all about, and I think maybe that is why everyone here is much happier and the general atmosphere is sooooooo much more positive. LTC is hard, God bless the nurses who can do it, med surg was great for learning, but sometimes I felt like we were in a restaraunt, you know, turn 'em and burn 'em, get them in, get them out as fast as possible. No chance to really get to know any of your patients and develop any kind of rapport, just fix them up, make sure they dont die!!!, and pass them on to the next level. This is a criticism of management and the facility I worked in, NOT a reflection of med surg nurses, so please dont flame me!!! I am so happy I found rehab nursing.

I'm glad you like it-that sounds like the one where I work. I'm planning on taking the CRRN in June. Good luck----MM

mcmrnbsn--I would like to know what health south facility you work at that has only 6-8 patients? I work at one and we have a minimum of 8 patients, most of times 9-10, with discharges and admits all day long. We work 12 hour shifts and lately most of our patients have been there for "deconditioning" most have dementia or something not to do with what you would think a rehabilitation hospital would be. HealthSouth is a wonderful facility, the benefits and vacation perks are great, but the nursing staff lacks big time. The facility I work at no one works together. If a call light is on, the nurse will walk a mile to find her tech to answer the light. If you are on your 30 minute break, punched off the clock, someone will come get you to tell you that you need to get so and so a pain pill. Most of us have taken to leaving the building so that we can have our "30" minutes to ourselves. The pay is not comparable to other hospitals. But it is a variety of patients.

I'm sorry to hear that about your facility. I work at Vanderbilt Stallworth Rehab Hospital in Nashville. We have a variety of patients-yes some with "deconditioning" but strokes, MVAs, ortho, some peds occasionaklly. 6-7 is a good patient assignment for us. I have had days with 8 but that is not good nor is it safe. We have mostly good techs-if they came hunting the nurse for certain things instead of doing it, they wouldn't last long. As for getting you off your lunch-we all try to respect each other's breaks as long as they are not abused. I would not go interrupt someone's lunch unless it was a real emergency. Where do you work-reply in private if you wish-I'm curious. MM

I am a brand new grad - well, as a matter of fact, I graduate tomorrow night. I applied on-line to a hospital that accepts general applications so you aren't applying for any specific job and today received a call to set up an interview for a rehab position. Do you think I will be able to do rehab nursing without prior med-surg experience? I do have some LTC experience as a CNA and LPN. Is it more rewarding than med-surg?

Also, any interview tips?

Thanks in advance.

SJW

I think the most typical experience here is how to get up early and yourself should be in the right manner of condition before you start to endorse your patient.

Its is bettr for you to experience medical and surgical before you specialized another area.

th hs that i worked for was frequently a total care but i didn't mind that once i got use to it..the patient load was like 4 if you had more you had an aide..with total care you don't tell an aide to do something and return later and find it wasn't done
the pay was like about 10% higher than the other hospitals the Christmas bonus was much less however
physical therapy does rank higher than the nurses because they are the ones who determine the therapy for the individual aptients but most of them were willing to listen to suggestions
i think that you will find this a good career move

hi, i am a new lpn grad and will be starting at healthsouth as an lpn next week. i used to work there as a rehab tech so i have a heads up but i wanted to ask you what i should expect as an lpn. i feel that i should brush up on some patient care techniques. any suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated! thanks