Neuro Rehab vs. Neuroscience Unit

[LadyLovelilocks]

Hello all, I am a new grad and I have an interview coming up for a Neuro Rehab unit in a very busy urban hospital. I am wondering how a Neuro Rehab unit differs from a Neuroscience unit (in this hospital the two units are separated). What kind of nursing skills/tasks do you regularly use on your neuro rehab floor (IVs, tube feedings, neuro checks, etc.)?

Thank you :)

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

I work on an acute care neuroscience floor... a rehab unit would be a unit for those who are medically stable but require intensive PT/OT/speech, etc before they can return home. I would guess that a neuro rehab unit would be a decent amount of stroke patients, bleeds, cranis with post-op complications whose conditions no longer require acute care but are not safe to be at home. We send many patients to rehab who were previously ambulatory and indepedent with their ADLs but, because of their medical condition, are non-verbal, incontinent, G-tube, trach, etc. I have seen patients sent to rehab in the aforementioned condition who return a few months later decannulated, eating, walking, talking, etc.

Our patients do not go to rehab with IVs unless they have CVLs and are completing a course of IV antibiotics or if they are on TPN. The rehabs we send our patients to will not take a patient with a PIV. I would imagine there would be a decent amount of tube feeding in neuro rehab but you'd also be working with the SLP to try to get the patient POing again.