I work in acute care on a unit where (1) we have 10 beds like on a normal med-surg floor but with higher acuity and (2) we also have 7 beds in one big room and each patient is hooked up to a monitor, sometimes with an arterial line or a CPAP or stuff like that but we never have intubated patients. The nurse to patient ratio is 1:5 and 1:2-3, respectively.
Patients are transferred to us from the ER, the ICU or med-surg floors after MET calls. Presentations include e.g. atrial flutter and other arrhythmias, CVAs, hematuria, alcohol withdrawal and delirium, pneumonia, exacerbation of asthma/COPD, postoperative hypotension, dyspnea, delirium or need for further analgesia, hypo-/hyperglykemia and GI bleeds. The placement is obviously based on the severity of the symptoms. So it's medical with cardiology, neurology and respiratory and surgical with orthopedics, urology and gastrointestinal.
My unit also comprises of a kind of an intensive care unit (3) where they do not, however, treat the most severe cases but they're transferred to a proper ICU at another hospital, if that makes any sense. They do treat intubated patients, and the ratio is 1:1-2. RNs regularly rotate between all of the above mentioned and the CCU but so far I haven't been given the opportunity.
I've tried to do some research to find the appropriate equivalent and I've found terms like progressive care unit, high-dependency unit and intermediate care unit. I wonder how I should make the distinction between the different units I mentioned above.
The translation my hospital uses for (1) and (2) is the same and it's awkward ("Emergency Ward"). For (3) they use the term intermediate care unit (IMCU) but I'm not sure if that's appropriate and I don't know how to distinguish between (1), (2) and (3) if IMCU can only be used to refer to a unit like this and not the "lower level" units I tried to explain here.
I'd appreciate any helpful insights, thanks!
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I'm currently living and working outside the US but I'm expected to move to the US within 2018. As such, I'm tweaking my résumé to give potential employers an accurate description about my work experience as an RN.
I work in acute care on a unit where (1) we have 10 beds like on a normal med-surg floor but with higher acuity and (2) we also have 7 beds in one big room and each patient is hooked up to a monitor, sometimes with an arterial line or a CPAP or stuff like that but we never have intubated patients. The nurse to patient ratio is 1:5 and 1:2-3, respectively.
Patients are transferred to us from the ER, the ICU or med-surg floors after MET calls. Presentations include e.g. atrial flutter and other arrhythmias, CVAs, hematuria, alcohol withdrawal and delirium, pneumonia, exacerbation of asthma/COPD, postoperative hypotension, dyspnea, delirium or need for further analgesia, hypo-/hyperglykemia and GI bleeds. The placement is obviously based on the severity of the symptoms. So it's medical with cardiology, neurology and respiratory and surgical with orthopedics, urology and gastrointestinal.
My unit also comprises of a kind of an intensive care unit (3) where they do not, however, treat the most severe cases but they're transferred to a proper ICU at another hospital, if that makes any sense. They do treat intubated patients, and the ratio is 1:1-2. RNs regularly rotate between all of the above mentioned and the CCU but so far I haven't been given the opportunity.
I've tried to do some research to find the appropriate equivalent and I've found terms like progressive care unit, high-dependency unit and intermediate care unit. I wonder how I should make the distinction between the different units I mentioned above.
The translation my hospital uses for (1) and (2) is the same and it's awkward ("Emergency Ward"). For (3) they use the term intermediate care unit (IMCU) but I'm not sure if that's appropriate and I don't know how to distinguish between (1), (2) and (3) if IMCU can only be used to refer to a unit like this and not the "lower level" units I tried to explain here.
I'd appreciate any helpful insights, thanks!