Too Smart for Rehab Nursing

Specialties Rehabilitation

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I am too smart for Rehab Nursing.

This is what I hear whenever I tell people that I enjoy working in acute rehab and that when I am done with nursing school this Fall I think I am going to stick around on the rehab floor. I am a Nurse Tech who has worked on this floor for about a year. I am an A student who gets rave reviews from my clinical instructors. "Work in cardiac!" I hear often, "Go to progressive care!" "Rehab?!? You're too smart for rehab, you'll get BORED"

Bored?!? Have these people ever been on a rehab floor? They seem to think all we do is give pain meds and take teetering old ladies to the bathroom. Rehab combines med/surg nursing with a great deal of psych nursing and ortho nursing AND neuro nursing AND oncology nursing! We get all sorts of people on this floor! You have to be ready for anything.

Also, I enjoy the patients. I like getting to know them and their families and there is no greater joy than watching the patient that was not able to even move his/her legs on arrival finally stand up and take a few steps for the first time. Rehab nursing is about being a cheerleader some days and a drill sergeant the next. You have to use tough love sometimes. . .but also know when to just hug a patient and let them cry. We also laugh a lot on my floor.

Yes, there is a TON of paperwork for the nurses (I hear them cursing FIMs every day). Yes, it is physically hard. Yes, there are a lot of pain meds. No, there isn't the constant excitement of Trauma nursing or ICU. But there is magic and fulfillment and some days you truly do feel like a guardian angel.

Does anyone else love working in rehab and hate the comments about how boring it is and how a "smart nurse" shouldn't work there? Because some days I start to doubt myself and I start to think that maybe I should go to a med/surg or tele floor when I graduate -- I am afraid of being pigeon-holed forever as a "rehab nurse" But would that be the worst thing in the world?

Specializes in FNP.

I just finished a poster & training piece for other nurses about what we do - and one piece was - we give the time to let the patients do it on their own. That's one thing that people seem to have trouble with - that patience, watching someone struggle - but that's exactly what the patient needs - of course, we step in if needed, but - to go from an inability to do something to getting pants & shoes on, even if it does take 5 times as long as it normally would have - the point is - YOU did it! (the patient, that is)

Specializes in psych nursing/certified Parish Nurse.

That's for sure! Medicine is so often based on "quick fixes" that hardly anything gets "fixed"... as a Parish Nurse, I just have to say, "if one-by-one is good enough for God, it is good enough for me!" (meaning, the time spent comes back in innumerable abundances of grace/healing).

Specializes in Psychiatric/ER/Primary Clinic/Addiction.

I have also only worked LTC/Rehab since graduating from BSN school in 2006. I was immediately put into a supervisory role due to being the only RN in the building on 3-11. I was a fresh graduate and needed to learn fast how to manage a team of nursing professionals, yes, CNA and LPN, and learn all of the auditing and responsibility of manager on duty as well as the high acuity of some of the patients. It was a 92 bed facility and at different ends of the building I would have concurrent emergent scenarios. My point being, there is no shortage of emergency situations, and the prior poster was correct, there is no equipment other than oxygen and the talent that lay in those walls to care for the patient until transport to the ACF can be made. :yeah:

LOL...It's funny...whenever you are good at your job, people tell you you are too good for it.

Specializes in Acute Rehab and Peds.

I have been a CRRN (Certified Rehabilitation Registered Nurse) for 17 years and I still remember how hard that test was. There is nothing easy about acute rehab physically or mentally. If you love rehab stay there. We need GOOD rehab nurses. Somebody has to be the cheerleader and I am glad to do it. What a wide range of outcomes we get to be a part of. I didn't get into nursing to prove how smart I am. If people think you are too smart for acute rehab it makes me wonder what their motives are for nursing.

I'm excited about to begin my career as a rehab nurse in a sub acute hospital. I do believe that this specialty encompasses all area of nursing including; psych, med-surg, oncology, cva's etc. I look forward to beginning my new career as a new nurse. I bring to this facility a zest for knowledge and a zeal to help. Thank all of you for your input. Peace and God Bless Rehab Nurses. I am proud to join your rank.

Thank you all so much for the insight into rehab nursing! :) Im a brand new graduate, and I'm going to be working in a subacute rehab facility. I'd gotten the "too smart for that go into ICU" speech before. I thought I had to go into critical care if I ever expected to get off to a good start in nursing practice. However, after reading these posts from all you great RN's out there is see that there's NOTHING defective about not going into ICU.:idea: I don't plan to stay in rehab forever, but i will work as hard as I can at it and learn as much as a can from it. Thank you all for renewing that thirst for knowledge in me, and reminding me that a nurses work is important no matter what field he or she is in.:nurse: Nursing school kinda makes you a little biased in that regard, and I'm glad I get the opportunity to experience something other than the path of med/surg and ICU.

Specializes in I/DD.
You are not a full-fledged nurse yet, yet you have a wonderful attitude that alot of nurses do not share. Some look down on other specialties while forgetting it is ALL about the patient. There are many nurses who show "lateral violence or aggression". Check out this term and you will see how some nurses, especially, seasoned nurses "eat their young".!!:)

http://www.nursingworld.org/mods/mod440/lateralfull.htm

(P.S. I used to work for the 2nd best-ranking rehab hospital in the Nation and saw first-hand literally miraculous recoveries due to the collaborative efforts of the team. So, before, rehab nursing is "pooh-poohed" one should find out more!)

Ah good old horizontal violence. I actually did a project on that sophomore year (which was actually one of the more fun projects that I've done...we made videos and demonstrated various ways that nurses might "eat their young). Anyways, it was a great project for me to do because I tend to be oversensitive to people's verbal/non-verbal criticism. Learning about this topic helped me learn how to recognize and handle this kind of behavior so it doesn't wear me down.

Anyways that doesn't have much to do with rehab nursing but I do want to encourage people to read some articles about HV because even in my 2 short years as a tech it is sadly very much alive

Just wanted to update everyone that I got a job in a free-standing, very well-known acute rehab hospital. (I just graduated in May 2010.) I will start orientation on my unit (brain injury) this week. I keep pinching myself to make sure it is real! I feel so lucky.

Specializes in rehab, med-surg, critical care, telemetr.

Ugh...gotta love thos who don't really know what rehab is all about. It's a unique crossroad where nursing, education and therapy all collide! I spend most days being a cheerleader, somedays educating pts and families about everything from meds to transfers, to sex, and other days accomplishing transfers with pts others had given up all hope on. Is it backbreaking? Yes! Is it heartbreaking sometimes? Yes! But it is so worth it to see that CVA pt lift their pinky finger on what was a flaccid hand, or the TBI pt sit through an entire meal without cursing or hitting someone. Then there's the SCI that caths themself for the first time, allowing them to go home vs the nursing home at 35 years old. I feel like I am making a difference--not just stabilizing and discharging. This is what nursing wa supposed to be--embrace it! If rehab is what you feel pulled to, it is where you should be. Good luck!:nurse:

What city will you be working?

What city will you be working?

Philly.

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