Neuro/Stroke Unit? Anyone familiar with it?

[Zee_RN, BSN, RN]

I cannot find a board for "neuro" nursing that is not Neuro Intensive Care so I thought I'd ask here. I have had no response in the Neuro Intensive Care thread.

I'm an ICU nurse who has just been offered the position of "Team Leader" (like an assistant manager) for a new unit in our hospital. It will be a 10-bed Neuro/Stroke Tele Unit. We have a signed contract with American Heart Association's "Get With The Guidelines" project. It's still under construction so I don't know when I'll start.

Is there anyone out there in this kind of unit? How do you like and how often are you using TPA? Thanks!!

[purseOnalityRN]

I worked a stroke/tele unit for just over a year.. There were 15 beds with two tele epilepsy/induced seizure beds. We never had to give tpa on the floors as tpa would be done in emerg. I found it a very physically demanding area to work in as much focus was on mobilizing pts that did not have much function left from strokes. It seemed as if care was centered around getting people up to the wc's for lunch. Asides from tube feeds - ng's and peg's - there weren't very many technical skills involved. I made my move to a general surgery unit finding I had to learn A LOT of nursing skills. We had the occasional GBS pts who would come in for IVIG treatments, as well as MS and myasthenia gravis pts. Oh and parkinsons.. Pretty much everything that was not neurosurg but neuro. The epilepsy monitoring beds are cool though. We would induce seizures by taking pts off their meds slowly or doing light stimulation. They would be on cont eeg monitoring and video. We were also trained to give radioactive isotope injections during seizures. I loved that part of neuro.

[L&Dnurse2Be]

I work on a 33 bed neuro unit. Not a nurse yet though. TPA is not done on our floor. Those patients are kept in ICU. We used to have a neuro ICU, but they decided to move it to the regular ICU. The nurses on the floor are very knowledgable. Most are certified neuro registered nurses. We deal with brain tumors, CVA, TIA, seizures, etc. Very interesting cases. We send a lot of patients to rehab. Lot's of recovery. Great place to learn and work.

[Zee_RN, BSN, RN]

Thanks for your input! Our unit is still in the planning phase so I'm not sure what to expect.