This is a perfect example of happy workers, happy patients. This hospital was huge
with over 900 beds! I worked night shift on a Neuroscience Unit and floated
occasionally.
The unit that I worked on had all types of neuro diagnoses from brain
cancer, CVA/TIA, hydrocephalus, seizures (even had an epilepsy monitoring unit),
brain hemorrhages, and brain surgery including craniotomy and resection. And much
more! I can say by the end of this contract I was a beast at completing the NIH stroke
scale with no help or assistance.  I’m going to start with all the good things!
The patients would always talk about how nice everyone was, and the staff was happy
working here as well. I would consider this hospital very travel friendly; there are lots
of travelers here that love it!

When it came to supplies and having the things you need to do your job, this hospital
has everything you needed, and you didn’t have to look far! Everyone is very helpful,
and the staff is used to having travelers around which makes it easier to go with the
flow of things. There were a lot of other travelers on the unit that I worked on and
when I got floated occasionally they were on the other units as well. I will say that this
place is a well-oiled machine and with the amount of beds and staff it makes sense. I
have never worked on a primarily Neuro floor but have worked with Neuro patients
occasionally. This unit has increased my skills when it came to dealing with different
diagnoses as well as assessments.

On this unit there were two sides, the IMC side and the Telemetry side. On the IMC
side, we had 3 patients and on the Tele side we could take up to 5 patients (usually
had 4). When on the Tele side there was a high probability you would be taking care
of EMU patients (Epilepsy Monitoring Unit). These were individuals that were
voluntarily admitted that had issues with having seizures while on their meds or their
doctor wanted to determine the source of their seizures. Either way, they were taken
off their meds, put on an EEG and monitored, and sleep deprived (sleep from 2a-6a)
to initiate a seizure. At first, the thought of having a patient and not knowing if or
when they were going to seize kind of freaked me out, but I got used to it.

The IMC side was tough, with mostly total care patients that were either lethargic and
stuporous or with wild behavioral issues. The teamwork was there, and the staffing
was adequate to feel like you weren’t drowning (most of the time). Last point to make
is how awesome the night docs were and how easy it was to communicate and get in
touch with them. There were never any issues with paging a doctor and not hearing
back, they were all very attentive! All in all, I will say this floor is not for a new nurse
that is not super confident with their skills and what they know.

Now let’s talk about food because this is a big deal working night shift, as food is not
always available to the PM shifter. Cafeteria is open 24/7, which is a plus! The grill is
open with limited items and some cold things that has been out since the daytime.
Coffee is amazing, would definitely recommend. They also have a Panera that used to
close at midnight but now at 9p which is a definite bummer!

So, all good things come to an end right? LOL. Well, I really don’t have too many bad
things to say about this place. Toward the end of my contract there started to be some
obvious staffing issues, the charge nurse would have patients which took away from
their assistance with nurses on the floor. Avasys is a virtual monitoring system that is
placed in a patient’s room which was very helpful when there is a patient trying to get
out of bed. But sometimes the person behind the Avasys isn’t always as fast as you
need them to be when responding to a patient event. But just having access to this
device is a helpful thing. All in all, this is a travel-friendly facility, and I would
definitely return!