New grad RN starting on stroke unit

[mrex]

Hello everyone,

After 11 months since I earned my BSN and 11 months of discouraging frustration, I finally landed a new grad position on a stroke unit. Although the unit is labeled a stroke unit, the patients also include cardiac-related diagnoses as well as respiratory problems and sepsis. Being almost a year out of school, I am really nervous about jumping back into the hospital workplace. I was wondering if anybody can give advice on general and specific things I should prepare myself for on this unit. Obviously I should brush up on the cardiac stuff, but what else?

Thanks!

[Journey_On, BSN, RN]

Congratulations on your new job!

Here are some topics that might be useful to review:

- Certain medications such as heparin, coumadin, lovenox/fragmin, aspirin, digoxin, plavix, beta blockers/ACEIs/other BP meds, statin drugs (for cholesterol), diabetes medications

- The different types of strokes: hemorrhagic, ischemic, transcient ischemic attack (TIA)

- The different symptoms one can expect from a patient depending on what area of the brain the stroke occurred (i.e., left-side)

- Stroke risk factors - these are important to know in order to educate your patients

- EKG rhythms

- Common diagnostic tests for patients in this population such as CT scan, echocardiogram, carotid ultrasound, MRI, EEG, TEE, CEA

Hope it goes well - you will learn a lot!

[SoilderofLove]

I would love to hear about your experience once you begin. I am starting on a stepdown unit but the stroke speciality might be an area that I would love to explore down the road.

[mrex]

Thanks for the tips, Sehsun!

SoilderofLove, I start next week. My start date got pushed back because I'm relocating. I'll try to keep you updated after a few weeks of work.