Neuro Medical Preceptorship

chicookie, BSN, RN · Jan 1, 2009

If it is anything like the hospital where I work at, yes it is the only difference is that it has a neuro focus.

Paper work has a neuro focus, assessments have a neuro focus. But other than that, its basically the same.

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Jan 1, 2009

i worked on a medical neuro unit. our patients were post-op brain surgeries, closed head injuries/traumas, parkinson's, strokes, seizure patients of all kinds, and spinal injury patients. if the brain or spinal cord are somehow involved, the patient will be placed on that unit. you might want to review the anatomy of the spine and the function of the cranial and spinal nerves. you need to know how to assess each of the individual cranial and spinal nerves and how to do a neuro check. you can get a good overview of cranial and spinal nerve assessment on the ucsd practical guide to clinical medicine website (http://meded.ucsd.edu/clinicalmed/introduction.htm). read up on how to treat seizures because on any day we had at least one patient having them. (https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-student/nursing-interventions-290552.html - see post #8) stroke patients as well as some brain and spinal injury patients may have a lot of physical deficits and are often going to be starting rehabilitation (see http://www.stroke.org/site/pageserver?pagename=las - life after stroke). you may see spinal cord patients with stage iv decubitus ulcers (http://www.nursingquality.org/ndnqipressureulcertraining/module1/default.aspx - pressure ulcer training tutorial). to find information on the specific neuro diseases, see the online merck manual: http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec16.html (you can also input specific diseases into the search box)

i loved working neuro, saw and learned a lot. the brain is an interesting organ. good luck with your preceptorship.