Potentially ridiculous question...interviewing for Acute renal unit RN position.

[DL-SNUP]

So, I have an interview coming up for an RN position on an Acute Renal Unit. I'm a new grad, and don't have any clinical experience on a solely renal unit (although I've worked with renal failure patients). I feel incredibly silly asking this, but would an acute renal unit be similar to a dialysis unit? Or would it be dialysis combined with other cares for those in renal failure? The job description is very vague, and doesn't really address specific nurse responsibilities. I do know that the pts are very sick, since it's an ICU step down unit, but other than that...I don't know much. Anyone have some advice?

Also, it's a nurse preceptorship program, so I wouldn't just be thrown into the position. It would just be nice to have some more info going into the interview.

Thanks!

DL.

[zorabanks]

Try checking out the hospital's website for more information. Also, look up renal units in general as well as nursing job description for renal nursing. You might also try speaking with nurse recruiter in human resource department at the hospital. Good luck!

[acutedialysis]

My guess (and it's only a guess) is that they use "aucte" to mean hospital and "renal" for patients that have some form of renal imparment. That means that you will see all stages of renal failure, some on dialysis, some not. Good luck, but ask lots of questions in the interview :)

[DL-SNUP]

Thanks for the help! I was offered the job. :)

[zorabanks]

CONGRATS!!!! I hope it goes well for you!

[Lennonninja, MSN, APRN, NP]

Congratulations on the job! :)

I work on a med surg/renal floor. Usually dialysis pts have first priority for my floor, and we will actually bump a non dialysis pt off our floor if a peritoneal dialysis pt needs to be admitted because we can do the PD in our regular rooms. We don't do the dialysis for HD or PD, but the PD cycler is running through the whole night in the pts room. We usually get the non dialysis but acute renal failure pts, and if we have room, the kidney stones and urology patients. Day shift is crazy with pts coming and going all day to dialysis, so you have to play catch up with their meds after they're back because some meds you can't give before dialysis. Luckily I work nights With dialysis pts, we routinely have people that stay with us for a month or two at a time before they're well enough to go back home or to the ecf, so you get to know people pretty well. You'll see a lot of the same people being admitted over and over. Sometimes it can be a pretty hard floor to work on because these people are very sick and usually have several other co-morbidities. We're not an ICU stepdown, but we do get a lot of transfers from critical care. It's sometimes difficult for me to see people who never really get better. But when we have people who recover from their acute kidney injuries, or I get to pull a temporary dialysis catheter because they no longer need treatment, it's awesome :)