Rehab/LTC nurse to Med/Surg nurse: advise please

[ws582]

Could anyone whose gone from Rehab/LTC nursing (dealing with 20 to 30 patients) and moved to Med/Surg nursing (with 6+ patients) please give their opinion of which suited them better? I work on a subacute unit in rehabilitation and average 20 patients. On a typical day, I might have 2 IV therapy, 2 traches, 2 GT, and many on NEB treatments. Quite a few of the 20, only require their scheduled and PRN meds, but I still find this many patients so overwhelming. Most of them are on so many meds, charting has to be done on 75% of them, and then there's always the time consuming complications that come up. The nurses I work with say if I can handle this, I can handle Med/Surg at a hospital, but I think those patients are typically more acute (although we get some very acute patients in the unit I'm at). I'd love to hear your opinion, because I'm very interested in working at a hospital and am wondering how it will differ. Do you feel you're able to better care for 6+ acute patients than 20 sub-acute? Which did you feel was more stressful? Thank you so much :)

[husker_rn, RN]

I went back to med-surg after a couple years in LTC. If you can handle LTC, you can handle med-surg. Yes some of my patients are acute but so were my fragile old folks. And after being responsible for 30 + residents, my teams of 5-6 patients is quite doable. Good luck !!

[ws582]

That's so wonderful to hear. Thank you!

[CeceRN]

bump.....

[skyblue77]

I look forward to hearing comments on this. I work at a Transitional Care Unit/LTC with up to 30 patients and I had an interview today for a Med/Surg Ortho unit. The manager said up to 6 patients and that sounded like heaven but I understand they are more acute which is actually what I'm looking forward to.