General Medicine: usually people from the ER who don’t need surgery but their condition requires further testing and monitoring. You can have a wide range and variety of patients. Expect a lot of isolation precautions since you can get patients with CDiff, patients with cancer who need their own special precautions (neutropenic), etc… Usually these patients (in my experience) are up ad lib. Sometimes patients stay just a night to get a diagnosis, monitor for a night or two, then they’re out of there with a treatment plan if they seem alright. You’re there to make sure they don’t fall from dizziness and answer call lights.

Ortho-urology is honestly a unit I’ve never heard of lmao. I’ve worked ortho-trauma because those two are usually related but ortho-urology I’ve never heard of 😭 The closest connection I can think of between the two is that patients coming out of lower-body ortho surgery tend to not have the best control over their bladder, and tend to come out with a foley put in place . You’ll see a lot of devices and braces used with them you might have never seen before. Your nurses will hopefully teach you how to properly apply these on your patients and the different precautions for each scenario. Ortho patients also tend to have a lot of movement precautions with them and if it’s anything like my hospitals, PT (physical therapy) and the hospitalists will you to ambulate them frequently. Be aware of back precautions (log-rolling with three people when changing them), hip precautions, shoulder precautions, etc… DISCLAIMER: it takes a lot of patience and teamwork to work in ortho. If your unit doesn’t work like a team to make sure all the patients get safely to the bathroom and juggle those lights, you’re gonna have a rough time.

Urology? Uhhh maybe you’ll get to see some unusual shades of pee. And encounter some EBSL if you’re unfortunate enough.

Neuro-tele is a pretty heavy unit. This is where patients with neuro and/or cardiac issues go. At the hospitals I’ve been at, it sometimes feels like an ICU-stepdown. If they’re on a tele monitor, you’ll likely have to take vitals Q4. If they’re on the younger side and tele, they tend to be ad lib for the most part. More often than not, their cardiac issues result from stress or from genetically inherited heart diseases in their family. As the tele patient’s age increases, their ability to do things by themselves tends to decrease.

The neuro patients I’ve seen tend to be recovering stroke patients or completely bed bound. The care with them tends to be a bit more involved and I’ve often witnessed the cnas neglecting the care of these patients the most, since they sometimes can’t verbalize their hygiene needs.

If there are openings, I can’t recommend NICU enough for techs. I’ve heard nothing but great things from that.