what exactly is a medical - neuro unit?

[badtz143]

Hi everyone. I am a new grad currently on a medical/oncology unit for 3 weeks now. I am finding that it is not the right fit for me and to make a long story short, I got a call from a nurse recruiter saying there is a position available on the medical-neuro unit. My current unit handles chemo patients and we are also a "float" unit meaning we get everything else. Would you all be so kind to tell me what kind of medical-neuro unit is? Is that just like med/surg? What would be the approximate nurse/patient ratio? I do know that this is not an neuro ICU though. Please give me some input. I don't want to start another job at another hospital only to realize this isn't the righ fit for me either. I would really be so grateful for your thoughts!

[gggggg]

I work on a med-surg neuro unit. We get all the neurosurgery post-ops (mostly spinal surgery) as well as some stroke patients and others coming out of the neuro ICU unit. We also get a good number of MVA and trauma patients, and beyond that we get whatever other medical or surgical patients we have room for. As a new RN I find it a good place to work because I'm developing specialized skills and knowledge related to neuro while getting a well-rounded med-surg background as well. It's very fast-paced but I really love the variety. Our nurse/patient ratio is 1:6 on days and evenings and 1:8 on nights.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

A medical neuro unit would handle primarily patients with CVA's and seizures. Also the obscure neuro problems like myasthesis gravis, ALS, brain tumors and of course the lovely "altered mental status".

I'm not sure if a medical neuro unit would have head injured patients or not, but maybe.