Neurosurgery Floor?

Okami_CCRN, BSN, RN · Jan 19

You will be expected to provide basic nursing care at the direction of the RN/LPN, this may include, but is not limited to bathing, ambulating, obtaining vital signs/labs, performing 1:1/1:2 clinical watch, etc.

For your interview you may want to ask about what does a typical patient assignment look like, how often is ancillary staff floated.

Neurology / neurosurgery units can be heavy both emotionally and physically. You may encounter patients with devastating neurological injuries. However, I think PCT/CNA experience can prove invaluable to nursing school as long as you are able to separate reality from textbook.

mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN · Jan 28

TBI pts can be especially trying as they can be on the verge of "normal" or not and they are sometimes aware enough to know that something is wrong but they can't figure it out. I was on a trauma unit and it was challenging. Our sister unit was neuro. I find it very challenging and like PP said, it's very difficult physically and emotionally

MelEpiRN · Jan 29

As you said, every hospital is different. I worked neurosurg/ ortho at one place and the only neurosurgery we ever got was elective spine surgery. Some people needed more help ambulating, bathing, etc. Others felt AMAZING after their surgery (yay pain relief!) and went home immediately.

Now I work in a level 1 trauma center, with extensive neurosurgery. You could be working with elective surgery, to severe spinal cord injury patients (total care) or TBI patients. These are as other people said, physically and emotionally challenging. But you'd definitely learn a lot- especially how our healthcare system is not designed to help people with these types of injuries.