new rehab nurse

TracyB,RN, RN · Oct 7, 2005

Caren... I admire your determination. I have to check out your diagnosis, as I am not familiar with it or your limitations.

I can tell you that I had back surgery (discectomy L4-5) 10 months ago today, & STILL am unable to work rehab, (or any other job) despite my efforts to do so. I am currently on a 10# lift restriction, with other restrictions for bending, stooping, stretching, etc.... At this rate, I am probably looking at a disc replacement or fusion in the next 2 yrs. I don't see myself ever being able to do rehab, let alone basic nursing care & I am not even 35 yet. I a, searching for a less physically intense nursing job & not having the greatest luck. Nobody wants a nurse who can barely lift a gallon of milk...

So, rehab is totally cool.... But very physical at times.

Be careful & best of luck to you.

unknown99, BSN, RN · Oct 7, 2005

Wow!! Our ratio is 6 rehab patients to one team of an RN and a rehab aide.

I cannot imagine more!!

Gennaver, MSN · Oct 16, 2005

Caren... I admire your determination. I have to check out your diagnosis, as I am not familiar with it or your limitations.
I can tell you that I had back surgery (discectomy L4-5) 10 months ago today, & STILL am unable to work rehab, (or any other job) despite my efforts to do so. I am currently on a 10# lift restriction, with other restrictions for bending, stooping, stretching, etc.... At this rate, I am probably looking at a disc replacement or fusion in the next 2 yrs. I don't see myself ever being able to do rehab, let alone basic nursing care & I am not even 35 yet. I a, searching for a less physically intense nursing job & not having the greatest luck. Nobody wants a nurse who can barely lift a gallon of milk...
So, rehab is totally cool.... But very physical at times.
Be careful & best of luck to you.

Hi TracyB RN,

I am a student nurse who worked almost three years in Physical rehab. Yes, it is very physically demanding, very much so. We did get our patients up, (even the spinals) every day. Most patients we got up several times a day and gave really good care, (I am proud of the care my coworkers and I gave, they really cared). However, this was so very physically taxing.

Many of my coworkers had mentioned remembering a time before they hurt their backs!

My grandmother had her spine fused due to degenerative disk disease and herniating disks and my mother had ortho surgery when hers went bad and then had neuro-surgery for the second and third times. I also know another person in my personal life who had a fusion and two other people with herniating disks that did not have the fusion.

Based upon my conversations with those people and from my observations of them, I am ready to make the choice of fusion if my day ever comes. Personally, I think I would rather loose a little range of motion right off the bat than to risk years of herniations. Of course this is not very well thought out as, (knock on wood) my back is still trying to hold its own.

I want to wish you well and suggest you look into office nursing. When I worked at a large women's health facility we did get nurses to come to work for us from two of our companies hospitals when they were on physical restrictions for either bad backs or injuries or what not. Maybe this is an option for you. It is not bedside nursing but, it IS nursing.

Good luck,

Gennaver

namorce · Nov 12, 2005

i am an rn that is new to rehab nursing. i worked previously on a tele floor in a very good hospital in the area. i decided to change venues because i found that i was not able to educate and bond with my pts as much as i would like. at the rehab facility that i am employed at , the ratios can be harsh. i work the evening shift ( 3 - 11:30) and have had as many as eight pts and one cna to help. even though i run my hinny off most evenings, and the acuity of the pts coming to rehab is increasing , i have found that i make a huge difference in my pts lives.

i have bonded with many fo my pts and their familes and alot of times , when these pts return for outpt services after d/c, they will come up to the floor to see us and say hello. it is exciting to see these pts progress and to share in thier personal accomplishments is heart warming.

this type of nursing career may be tough at first, and it can be harsh on the body, but for the most part , it is a very rewarding nursing field.

good luck in what ever you do,

namorce:)

natkat2816 · Nov 13, 2005

That is also why I LOVE rehab nursing - because of the relationships you have with your patients and their families!! It is rewarding. (But then I miss them when they discharge).

jo1010 · Sep 18, 2009

I work in a rehab center in NJ. The pt to nurse ratio is 15:1. It is horrible, 15:1 with 3 nurses on the unit and 4 aids (they dont even do blood sugars, which was weird to me, as i worked in the hospital before becoming a nurse and i did quite a lot). At night there is only 2 nurses so it comes to 25:1. Pretty bad, but i cant leave yet, i need to get experience and then try to get out. I have been there for almost a month. Oh.. one more thing.. they gave me only 2 weeks orientation as a new grad nurse. Ridiculous!

JWaldron · Dec 3, 2009

Since I wrote previously we have gone to 12 hour shifts, and now I'm on days. Very frustrating. I still have eight patients, no more feedback from the therapists than before, and at my institution (but not unique to us, I know) we are constantly being hit w/ more and more and more new 'responsibilities' and more and more and more forms as well as sicker and sicker patients. Our CNO complains about how task-oriented nurses are and that we are not supposed to be, but I do not understand what else we CAN be, since there are more tasks to be done than there is time in which to do them! But don't be late in getting out at the end of your shift!

We have a terrible time getting meds from our pharmacy - there are not enough pharmacists or pharm techs and they do not make deliveries as often as they say they do. Sometimes they are more than 8 hours behind, and will not let you come down and pick up meds, even STAT ones. Our pharmacy system is a disaster! We bring it up over and over and over again at meetings, and get told to 'just file an incident report', which is what we should do, but we could spend an entire shift filling out incident reports (that system is terrible too!) and get nothing else done.

Sometimes I am so frustrated I feel like crying, but then I look at my patients, realize how much worse life could be, and also get so much positive feedback from my patients and families, and know that I am STILL making a difference in their lives. Most of them see the situation, and do not blame the Rehab staff, thank heavens. Even w/ all these 'challenges' our unit has by far the highest patient satisfaction rating in the two-hospital system, we certainly have the best (and the hardest-working) aides, and there is a lot of teamwork among the nurses, which, sad to say, is not the case in the majority of units here.

We usually have 8 patients w/ one aide on the A shift ( 7A-7P) and the P shift (7P - 7A) usually has between 8 and 11 patients. If there is an LPN on, the Charge RN, who has patients of her/his own, is responsible for assessing the LPN's patients. Depending on how many patients she has, she may delegate some of that to the rest of us.

Do you find that the nurses in the rest of the hospital (those of you in a hospital-based IRF) somehow think that you don't do 'real' nursing, or is that limited to my hospital? I don't understand it, because if they send a really sick patient out of their unit, the patient doesn't magically improve in the elevator! If they did, believe me, I'd be riding that elevator all day long myself! They will TELL us we aren't REAL nurses, and managers tell their nurses we don't do real nursing! They also tend to pull good IV access out, and central lines, and then we have to put them back, because the patient is still on IV meds! Even after multiple requests to unit managers this continues to happen.

Savvy One