Transplant RN Job Opportunity

[GaMommy81]

Hello all,

I have been offered a transplant RN position taking care of pre and post op kidney transplant patients. I know that I want to work in a surgical ICU eventually. Is this a good position in order to work towards this goal? Can someone provide insight on transplant floors? Any information provided would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[GaMommy81]

Amheim,

I am glad you feel transplant is a great avenue into critical care. I am ready to get going. What types of transplant patients did you care for? Thanks in advance.

[frodo-dog]

I did liver kidney transplant for a year. People left the floor to go to med surg to get real experience and a step closer to ICU. The tasks on a transplant floor are pretty much the same every day and the varienty of skills is lacking. It is not a good basis for ICU. General med surg would be better. I got very bored after the first few months yearning for some variety. There was the pre blood work up and transfusions, post NG, duo, catheter, IV's, get them up and about, send them home. Lots of lactulose diarrhea or compactions. How I longed for a CBI, ortho experience, anything else. However, if its the only route into a hospital... well take it. Otherwise I would recommend getting wider experience on general med surg.

[GaMommy81]

Frodo-dog,

That's too bad you felt this way. I know my new manager said we still get some med-surg overflow so I am looking forward to it. Did your fresh livers come back to your floor first? I am hoping to do transplant for a year or so and then hit the ICU.

[frodo-dog]

Hi GaMommy81, our floor was split between a pseudo ICU and the "specialty med surg", so the nurses were simply assigned to either. The fresh livers went to the pseudo ICU, but our pseudo ICU didnt have the equipment or clinical skills that normal ICU's had, again it was very repetitious. Also, unlike other hospitals, our whole floor had a 5:1 ratio and it was very hard work. We did not get lunch or leave early. We also shared a CNA and so were doing most of the CNA work ourselves: walking patients, taking them to the bathroom, cleaning them up. So thats another question for your decision making. 3:1 is about as many as I think you should have. The veins of liver kidney patients are shot and the liver patients bleed profusely, so getting IV's is very hard and its demoralizing. We used to joke about how many we had or had not got in a day. The constantly need replacing and we always begged for central lines. I love liver patients though, they are so complex in their symptoms. I did love that I was specializing, but as a new grad, needed more clinical skills to move on. If I had worked else where and gained all of the variety of skills, I would not have minded so much.

[GaMommy81]

Thank you for sharing your experience frodo-dog. I am going to try for a transplant icu or surgical icu in the future. The hospital that I am transferring to has several different ICUs so hopefully transferring internally will not be difficult. I have tried to get an icu position but it has been tough for me. I have not given up.