Health South Rehab Hospital?

Debbie_lpn_la · Oct 14, 2005

I work for HealthSouth for 4 yrs. as an LPN full time and now am just prn. Not sure what you are wanting to know. I don't have any specific complaints. You are welcome to write me back and ask anything you want. We are a small satellite hospital with our main hospital about 40 miles away. I hope I can help with any questions you may have.

Mulan · Oct 14, 2005

Thanks for the reply. If you don't have any specific complaints, your hospital must not be a bad place to work. :)

mel1977 · Sep 10, 2006

I have worked for 3 The longest being in MO-we are a 60 bed sub acute specializing in TBI, SCI, Multit, CVA etc...We are ranked nearly #1 of all HS inpatient facilities, so they say. I am proud to work for HS-all facilities differ and they have seperate focus'. For example, one I worked for in NV worked more with COPD, general Debil and CABG. They were pretty short term, where in my current one we are longer term with very high acuity.

I started at this one in 1998, left in 02 to move with hubby, worked for two more in 03-05 then moved home again and am back at the same place. I like them bc they are small but large. There is one in pretty much every major city-except San Diego, go figure. We are like a big family and I don't see much in the way of high turnover either. I'd stay here forever but don't plan on staying in MO.

PooterPT · Sep 16, 2006

Mulan,

I am a Healthsouth RN. It is a good place to work. The have good benefits, a nice clinical ladder program, good resourse people. With that said I need to tell you what I feel is a draw back. Often there is a lack of cohesiveness between the disciplines. More often than not at our facility, nursing is at the bottom of the food chain.

Boston-RN, RN · Oct 18, 2006

I was working for HeathSouth Rehab Hosp but it just got bought out by Five Star...only complaint really is staffing. Plenty of nurses, not enough aids. Other than that so far so good....new grad 3 mths

mcmrnbsn · Jan 2, 2007

I'm a RN-work for Healthsouth-have for 2 years. It's the best job I've ever had.

spejsa · Jan 11, 2007

I interviewed today at Healthsouth in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It sounds like a good opportunity and a great way for me to get out of cardiac. I am so sick of where I am!!! I have 6 patietns now and they said I will have 8 at HS. Is that bad or good? I don't do rehab, so I don't know. They say they will pay my student loans and will give a sign on. And, the salary is a little bit less but not much. Any ideas?

mcmrnbsn · Jan 11, 2007

Hi-having a patient load of 6-8 is our normal with it ususally being 6-7. We have nurse techs who are responsible for the patient care tasks: bathing, dressing, etc. if that is not being assisted with by O.T. I work on a unit that has a lot of ortho-hips, knees, also MVAs with fractures, some head trauma and some general debil patients. We have a great supply of good physical therapists, O.T.s , speech and R.T.s too-so our support is really good. Hope you like it-let us know. MM

tnurse63 · Jan 20, 2007

I am also thinking of applying for an rn position at healthsouth. I have been working for home health for the past 6 1/2 years . I am also wondering what to expect at a rehab hosp like healthsouth. What are some of the nursing duties as compared to an acute care hosp nurse?

mel1977 · Feb 1, 2007

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.

lvs2nrs3535 · Feb 25, 2007

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.