Dialysis nursing and transferring to another unit

hazyblue · Aug 27, 2012

I just want to say that Emergency Room Nursing is a completely different world from Dialysis Nursing. Sure some patients in dialysis will have arrests/hypoglycemia/hypotension but really it's different. It's not everyday that you'll calll a code for a patient. As for ICU, sure renal knowledge will come in handy and some patients will go on dialysis, care of central accesses will come in handy but the rest of nursing skills will be nil. If you've noticed here, there are many complaints from other units regarding dialysis nurses aren't doing patient care. The thing is in dialysis you have to focus on the dialysis and the patient. It's not ideal to do patient care while dialysis is going on because GOD only knows when an emergency might occur and you have to make sure your hands are free to touch a patient and stuff like that. And ICU isn't just about renal cases...

In short, ER is fast-paced practice, ICU is really-focused practice. It's better for you to go from dialysis to ICU than from dialysis to ER.

I just transferred from dialysis nursing to the wards and I need serious re-orientation. I've been in hemodialysis for about one year and a half and I am worse than a new graduate. And no, I'm not saying this because I hate the hell that is known as dialysis nursing that completely ruined my nursing career.

serenidad2004 · Aug 27, 2012

I am a new grad that has an interview at a dialysis center tomorrow. How much skills to you learn in dialysis. I'd eventually like to transfer to ICU or the emergency department and I'd like to know if any skills I learn while being a dialysis nurse would be transferrable.

I had years of experience prior to going to dialysis i would suggest getting floor exp first