1st job as new grad RN at Alzheimer's unit

Lev, MSN, RN, NP · Nov 6, 2014

If you will get a proper orientation, it is definitely a suitable environment for a new graduate. Many of your patients in the hospital will be elderly and many of them will have some form of dementia. Yes, it is true that some patients with dementia may get irritable which could lead to violence. You will learn to work with their moods. Not everyone with dementia is nasty, many are "pleasantly confused."

KellyRN2013 · Nov 27, 2014

You will do just fine! I worked in the Alzheimer's unit even as an LPN. Now they are not all violent. You may have one here or there who is violent but it isn't because of the Alzheimer's, it's because that's the way they have been all of their lives! It is not too specialized. You will notice that there are not a lot of skills within that unit. The unit's I worked on they could not have any IV's or PEG tubes, no catheters, and they had to be ambulatory or they must be able to push themselves in their own wheelchair. So you will learn about the immediate disease processes that your resident's may have but you will mainly be focused on the Alzheimer's disease process. I think you will love it. It definitely is a different type of nursing. You have to learn to go along with what they say and kind of agree and redirect them. it's kind of like how you have to talk and interact differently with mental illness. No, that is not a comparison to Alzheimer's I am just giving an example of what I mean by saying it is a "Different type of nursing." Many of the resident's are very pleasant. You will learn a lot from them and they will tell you experiences from their lives. With Alzheimer's you will notice that they regress in time to a certain point in their lives and they relive that short time frame of their life over and over on a daily basis. It is very difficult to see the families because they are so devastated because their loved one may not recognize them. So you are their rock especially if it is their significant other that has Alzheimer's. Also, you will notice that the younger they are when they get Alzheimer's the quicker the Alzheimer's will progress. The older they are when they get Alzheimer's the slower the disease progresses. it is very interesting. You will also learn about the 6 phases of Alzheimers. I really really loved the nursing. It did wear on your nerves sometimes because you may have one resident peeing in the mop bucket, another resident lining everyone up at the shower room to do baptisms, another one yelling at you because they think you are your significant other who won't pay attention to them but it is ALL worth it! you will learn very interesting things about these individuals and you will learn about their lives from family members. I worked at a veterans LTC center and we had a 5 star general, several pilots, and many more careers that were so interesting to learn about. I think you should go for it and you don't need any special skills to work in the Alzheimer's unit. You need extreme compassion and patience and you will do just fine! please let me know if you have any other questions that I can answer for you!

sassynerd · Nov 27, 2014

Thank you for your insightful response! Unfortunately, I didnt get the job but I will keep these in mind re: Alzheimer's patients! They certainly sound like a misunderstood and interesting bunch of human beings I'd love to help!