New to TCU

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I'm midway through my R.N. program and will be doing an 80 hour workstudy in a TCU this summer. Does anyone have any specific pointers for working on this unit (e.g., how is it different from medsurg)? Thanks!

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Specializes in cardiac/critical care/ informatics.

Is that a typo, TCU if not I am not familiar with what it is. If it is ICU,

Patient to nurse ratio is different, you will need critical thinking, monitoring of the patient is more frequently, usually no nursing assistants.

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tCU is Telemetry (or Transitional) Care Unit - somewhere between ICU and MedSurg, if I understand correctly....

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Specializes in ED.

We have a TCU at my hospital. Its a skilled care facility that is separate from the rest of the hospital. They work on rehabilitation, PT, OT among other things if they have had a somewhat long stay on other floors. I havn't worked in the TCU though so I couldn't say much about actually being there but it looked like a nice idea to have that in the hospital instead of kicking people straight out from our floor.

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Specializes in cardiac/critical care/ informatics.

Learn something new everyday;) I have been in nursing for 14 years and never heard of TCU maybe it is more popular in different areas, what you are describing is what we would call a step down unit if I understand correctly.

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Specializes in ED.

I guess it could be considered step down if there is such a thing from med/surg. Yeah, it could be step down, but when I describe it to patients who are being admitted there I call it more of a rehab facility.

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