LTACH or Med/Surg

[BSNmwsu]

Hey yall....I've had many "baby RNs" as well as seasoned RN's shy me away from LTACH jobs and insist that Med/Surg was a better oppurtunity for new grads. I've got an interview with a LTCH hopital, yes it's a job, but I was wondering what some of the more seasoned RN's had to say regarding LTACH and new grads. Thanks!

[smitty10]

well i just passed my nclex and alot of med-surg positions require at least 1-2 years experience. i was told to look at the ltach so i could build up my experience. good luck on your interview :)

smitty, RN

[1ounurse]

It depends on the type of Ltach you are going to be working at. I am expecting you are looking at one that is more geared to rehab and wound care type activities. Our has it all. I monitor cordarone, nitro, dopamine, various concious sedation, paralytics, well any drip you would give in ICU. We run our own codes without Dr.'s we are freestanding meaning we have to meet all the requirements a full service hospital has to. I do all my own lab draws, EKG monitoring unlike in other ICUs were the monitor tech does it for you. We assist in proceedures. Tom I have a bedside chest tube I will set up and assist the Dr. with. We assist with bedside trachs, bronchoscopies with washes and many other proceedures. Many of our nurses have been trained and do insert central lines or PICC lines. We have nurse/paramedics that will intabate during codes also. If you want to work on the ICU side you have to be able to perform all of this with minimal help supervision. We have an emergancy room that we the nurses run with a on-call Dr. So if someone show up with a finger cut off guess what you dealing with that too.. Stabalize and ship (we don't have surgical services). Yes all this in an LTACH and much more. But we are well known and use to be an short stay acute care hospital. When you talk to the Dr. most of them want there most critical patient at our LTACH because we are basicly a ICU. Many of our patients are too critical to go to step down. Yes we have two halls and the other hall is more like med/surg and rehab. To work for us though you have to have 2 year ICU experience for the ICU area and all our nurse must have ACLS. Most of our nurses have 2-5 years experience before hired. So make sure you know what type LTACH you are appling at and what you are required to do.