questions to telemetry nurses

[Ms.RN]

hello

i am considering a job in telemetry unit but i keep thinking about whether or not i should do it and i cant come up with an answer. i was lpn for few years, went back to school, graduated from rn program last year. since i graduated from school last year i continued to work in nursing homes because i'm very comfortable working in nursing homes. yesterday my co-worker who works in the hospital told me that she works in telemetry unit and they lost 4 nurses there and they are looking for nurses and asked me if i'm interested. my immediate answer was "yes" because i've been looking for an open positions in the hospital. but what bothers me is that this is a telemetry unit. i have no hospital work experience, and i dont have that much confidence in myself because of my no experience working in the hospital. but the thought of working in telemetry unit where patietns have heart problems and they are on cardiac monitors and they can code at any moment really scares me. so my question is:

how is telemetry unit different from med/surge unit? are patients more sicker than regular med/surg unit? do you think its better to work in med/surg first then change to telemetry? do you think its good idea for a nurse who has no experience to work in telemetry unit and putting my license at risk? thanks for any advice. :bow:

[ShayRN]

I have only worked Tele at the hospitals. I went from corrections to Tele to Hospice. Personally I think that Tele is the way to go for experience. You will get some classes to read the monitors and some extra help with cardiac drips. I loved working Tele and certainly learned a lot. I never once felt my license was at risk. My only concern would be this...Why did FOUR nurses just leave?

[cherrybreeze, ADN, RN]

Our telemetry floor is no different than any other medical floor...basically, that's just where the screens are. Patients throughout the hospital are on tele, they aren't all in that unit. You have to have training to sit and read the monitors, but techs also do it, not just RN's. As far as codes, we have no MORE codes on that floor than anywhere else.

[HonestRN]

I agree with ShayRN. There is a reason why the unit lost four nurses.

[FireStarterRN, BSN, RN]

You shouldn't be afraid of tele, it's not as if patients are coding right and left. They should be fairly stable, otherwise they'd be in the ICU. Since they're on a monitor, you have an extra set of eyes on the patient at all times.

I love tele!

[Blee O'Myacin, BSN, RN]

At my hospital, we only send patients who are stable with negative troponins and no active chest pain (of a cardiac nature) to the tele floor. The sick patients, or those on vasoactive drips either go to the PCU or ICU.

The hospital should have some type of course for tele certification which should be a part of your orientation.

Try it - you just might like it.

Blee

[Virgo_RN, BSN, RN]

Patients can and do code at any time on any floor. I'm tempted to think our floor has fewer codes, due to the fact that they are on telemetry and are being treated for arrhythmias before they develop into lethal ones.

As the others have mentioned, I'd be wondering why four nurses have left?

[BGgirl]

I've only worked on a tele unit and I've learned so much! We take everything from surgical pts to your simple chest painers. We take a ton of gtts so you can learn a lot about those too. I feel very confident in my abilities as a nurse from the experience learned on a cardiac unit and I can say that in my 4 years of working there, have only coded a handful of pts on my shift.

Now as for 4 nurses just leaving. On my unit we have a high turnover rate. Now this is due to certain factors but it also is due to the fact that many nurses start out in tele to gain their experience and then go to other units that they are interestd in such as OB, ER, ICU which is where many of the nurses have gone recently. We even have a nurse that wants to be in peds but there were no jobs when she applied.

You will take some telemetry classes before starting and you'll probably get a good orientation before being on your own. Good luck.

[momdebo, BSN, RN]

BE CAREFUL!!! First thing, what happened that they lost 4 nurses? Like most tele units they probably have huge turnover. I worked ICU/tele for a long time and I will tell you from my experience, half of your patients in tele should probably already be in ICU, the nurse/patient ratios are the worst (and DON'T believe them when they tell you it's 1:4 or 5!!),the work load and stress level are incredibly high, truly, I was less stressed in ICU than I was in tele. That's just my perception, maybe others have had a more positive experience. Good luck in your search.

[jaccimv]

I started in tele and have worked on med/surg floors. to be honest..i prefer them on a monitor because then i have extra eyes on them. and also... i think in five years...every pt will be tele/remote tele. its great exp so go for it. ask for help, you have your basic stuff down. they will show you / teach you the rest.

as the others said.. investigate why four nurses left. check out your rn to pt ratios as well.

good luck in whatever you decide :heartbeat

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

If you are happy why do you want to move? Life is no better in the hospital but your stress levels may be worse. Make sure you are moving for the right reasons. Good luck

[BGgirl]

BE CAREFUL!!! First thing, what happened that they lost 4 nurses? Like most tele units they probably have huge turnover. I worked ICU/tele for a long time and I will tell you from my experience, half of your patients in tele should probably already be in ICU, the nurse/patient ratios are the worst (and DON'T believe them when they tell you it's 1:4 or 5!!),the work load and stress level are incredibly high, truly, I was less stressed in ICU than I was in tele. That's just my perception, maybe others have had a more positive experience. Good luck in your search.

I do agree that a lot of our pts should be in ICU. I feel like we are the ICU half the time. It is a very stressful environment. I'm lucky enough (if I can say that) to really have a pt ratio of 1:4 on nights and sometimes 1:3. Dayshift is 1:3. Even with ratios like that, you can be running your butt off all night long. YOu can't beat the experience though. LIke I said, I feel pretty confident in most of my skills.