Final Placement Questions

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Specializes in NICU.

Hey there! I am about to start my final placement as a nursing student with a preceptor. It is on a surgical trauma unit, basically where trauma patients go after surgery.

I was wondering if anyone working on a similar floor had any tips for me as I have never worked on a surgical floor before. What kinds of things should I be studying, what do I need to know?

I would appreciate any input! :)

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Post op monitoring

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Specializes in Surgical.

Hey vintageandrea, sounds like you got a great placement!! (I'm guessing 6 South? :) )

I'm working on a surgical unit now (up the hill at JH), and I would highly suggest you know LOTS about hypovolemic shock- particularly in trauma. That's something that I always have to have eyes open for with post-op patients, but for you it will be even more so. It would be good to review transfers for ortho patients too- I know that's one of those things we only talked about for a bit in semester 3- for the ORIF patient?- so look that stuff over, it's easy to forget what the 'rules' are when someone has had a joint injury or replacement, and we are always trying to mobilize patients early and often.

Any specifics- PM me, as always! Best of luck! :)

~star~

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Specializes in NICU.

Hey starfish! Yes it's 6 south :) Congrats on getting a job on a surgical unit! This is the kind of nursing that I;m hoping to do so I'm hoping to get a job out of it, and if not - at least it'll be great experience. Thanks for the pointers and I'll definitely review those things :)

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