Is being neuro certified appropriate for us?

[NurseyPoo7]

Some nurses on our stroke unit would like to get their CNRN - however, this is a stroke unit that also takes MANY med surg patients (usually total care, PEGs, traches, hx of CVA, etc.). We also just began to take stable spinal surgery patients that has planned surgeries (laminectomies, discectomies, etc). The unit was built to be a "neuroscience" unit, but we have yet to obtain hemorrhagic CVA patients who had surgical intervention, TBI, spinal cord injuries, etc -- Mainly b/c the neurosurgeons are scared to give us too many of their patients -- the unit has some safety issues and did have a lot of staffing issues (still has some) when we first moved over there (e.g. Nurses-Pt Ratio was 5-6:1 with one CNA/PCT on the floor during day shift). Until all the kinks are worked out and the hospital provides us with education regarding those more intense patients, I doubt we will get those patients.

It's a "small" community hospital - this unit is 30 bed. Our hospital has 3 neurologists and 3 neurosurgeons. The stroke unit is not a neuro ICU. We do medical tele - however, the hospital just went to remote/centralized tele - we can log in to see the rhythms on the computer but it does log us out with inactivity on the screen, we have no traditional tele monitors on the floor, we cannot hear the alarms "ding". We are "medical" tele, not cardiac tele. We do NO cardiac drips - nothing for BP (must be in ICU) and since they took our tele monitors away, a lot of nurses complained and now we no longer do Cardizem (Cardizem was the only cardiac drip we ever did). We will occasionally have a heparin drip.

We do no ICP monitoring. Nurses typically have 5 patients on days and 6-7 on nights. Remember, this includes med surg patients. For stroke patients, we have specific protocols - Stroke pathway orders, tele, dysphagia screening, CVA education Q shift, neuro checks Q 4 hr x 48 hours and then Q 8 hr, etc. The hospital is a Certified Stroke Center and just achieved that, I believe, 3 or 4 years ago.

Another nurse and I just attended a stroke conference in Philadelphia and everything discussed was overwhelming and so in depth - we are scared to now obtain CNRN, as it seems to be more applicable to a neuro ICU nurse or more well-developed hospital with better technology (At this conference they discussed many surgical interventions and imaging/radiologic studies their hospital has that I have NEVER heard of -- e.g. MERCI coil, CT perfusion scans, etc.). Why should the hospital want us to obtain CNRN status if we wont even be able to really use our skills? Can anyone offer insight?