Rehab Nursing advice please...not a real nurse?

Specialties Rehabilitation

Published

I just accepted a position on an acute rehab unit as a new grad. Now Im very excited and happy to be starting however Im feeling a bit discouraged. Im hearing from some people that nurses whom work in rehab (physical med) are not real nurses. Real nurses work in the ER,ICU and medsurg floors.. some people want to know why Im wasting time there and they are also saying I will lose all my assessment skills or so on. They also think Im just going to be passing out meds and lifting people all day. Im sure these are the same people that disagree with psych nursing as well. Ughhh I just need some advice :(

Thank you!

You'll actually have to be sharper than some of the other specialties. You may be getting some patients straight from an ICU or Stepdown on a ventilator who may be a "push" and not fully ready for the transition. You will be assessing these patients without all the gadgets the ICU RNs had and you may have 4 - 6 other patients to care for. Yes if it is an Acute Rehab, you may have your share of ventilator and trach patients along with different access ports. You may or may not have RTs available. So, learn everything you can and if you ever decide to transfer to an ICU or ED, you may be light years ahead of the rest in many areas especially when it comes to some of the indepth assessments, special needs, equipment and paperwork.

hi leolomb

don't let the negative people bring you down or make you second guess yourself- you're a new grad- you just got a new job- that's great! :yeah:

you may find you love it, you may try a different type of nursing (as I am after over 25years of being a NICU RN)- that's the great thing about nursing, there are many different avenues one can take

I wish you the best of luck in your career! :)

1 Votes
Specializes in med-surg/ tele.

There is nothing wrong with working rehab, whether you are an LVN OR RN. You'll be fine... Tell the naysayers to mind their own business.

Specializes in geriatrics.

Everyone with RN, LVN or LPN behind their name is a real nurse. I get so sick of hearing this. Honestly, for people who are in a helping profession, some nurses can certainly be very negative. Ignore those ones.

Specializes in ORTHOPAEDICS-CERTIFIED SINCE 89.

OK. Auntie Prn, the oldest nurse on allnurses.com declares you are a real nurse. Therefore you may tell your phoney friends to byte you know what.

You are a real nurse!!! Dont believe what anyone says.

I work on a general rehab unit as a new grad on nights. What are everyone's nurse patient ratio's? Ours is 7-8 can be 10 if were short :(

Specializes in NICU, ER.

Rehab nurses rock!!! I floated to rehab the other day, and I tell you it may as well been the ICU. I had vents/trach's/central lines, a million meds. Definitely real nursing!!!

I too am a new working rehab. It keeps you busy and you have to be on your toes. Sometimes you don't know if a pt.s swelling is coming from them sitting for a long period of time for the first time in months or if their is something more. In a rehab hospital you have a lot of teamwork and you will have patients go down on you. You get a lil bit of everything in rehab except maternity. ANd if you are one of the few RNs in your facility you will be doing lots of assessments cause LPNs can't do the initial assessment. Have fun and get to learn about your patients, we have that advantage in rehab.:lol2:

Specializes in LTC.

All nurses are real nurses!!!!

Specializes in PICU, ICU, Hospice, Mgmt, DON.

I will start by saying ...what they all said before I could respond...Heck yes you are a REAL nurse...my very first job as a brand new RN was as an In patient Rehab nurse and it was the best training I could have gotten. It sharpend my assessement skills b/c we had such a variety of things there...including several codes! There are IV's to start and maintain and just as many IV meds to hang as a gen med floor I would say/foleys/casts/staples to remove/incisions to monitor/neurochecks to do and neuro cases to monitor lots of diabetic patients to watch out for-I could go on and on, jeeze I never sat down...It was enough that I was able to transfer into PICU after about 8 months without any difficulty at all.

Don't let anyone say that about rehab nursing...they are showing their ignorance.

You will love it and it is nice to know you are helping to really get better..you will see some amazing stuff.

Good luck

Specializes in RN, BSN, CHDN.

You will love it! You get lots of experiences which will will prepare you to be a great nurse.

Rehab is a speciality which can be slow and predicatable, fast and excieting and will actually give you the time to do things properly like you were trained

Specializes in Mental Health, Medical Research, Periop.

Unless you're a mannequin with a RN/LPN license than yes you're a "real nurse." I hate when people say that to me because I work in psych (which can be like rehab for the mind, LoL :D) anyhow, half of the people who say that to me couldn't survive a day in my job. All of my patients go through "wash out" in which all meds are stopped and the patient behavior is studied off of meds. I work in research and people constantly judge me because of it. It's interesting and I've learned so much. I use different skills everyday. Just ignore them, rehab is awesome!

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