[leern]

Could someone explain what the difference between med/surg/tele,
Tele, and stepdown tele. Thank you for any information.

[gin]

i have found that each hospital is different with their "naming" of units. A true "tele" floor is an area that has pt's with anything doing with problems of the heart. You can have R/O MI, arrythmias, endocarditis, Av blocks pacemakers and such. A step down will have post heart's , complicated surgeries and such. Tele/ med surg has post anything surgicals. Injuries. Usually the issue at hand is the staffing needs of the pt.

[sydnesue]

I have worked on a stepdown unit for 5 years. We take post-ops, cardiac arrythmias, ventilator patients with trachs no ETT, strokes and a large variety of other critical conditions. The tele floors do not take ventilator patients and some critical drips. We take more critical patients then the tele floors before they have to be sent to the ICU. Like the other post stated it really depends on the hospital. Good luck.

[leern]

Thank you guys for taking the time to answer and give me that information!!

[donnarn7994]

I have worked on tele floors, med-surg, PCU, DOU, step-down units. A true telemetry floor should have mostly cardiac type patients, all who are on telemetry monitors. Some telemetry floors do not use IV drips on the floor at all, some no more than 2 drips, some may use Dopamine, only titratable to a limit, some do not let you titrate any drips and some run as many as up to 17 different types of drips on the floor, but only 2 at a time, anything more will go to the units. The same pretty much holds true for a step-down unit. I have only worked in ONE step down unit that allowed stable vents. I wish there were more out there, especially for those of us who have extensive vent experience but choose not to work in ICU/MICU/CVICU. I have 14 yrs nursing exp, mainly step-down/ICU/LTAC and Tele. I have been traveling the last year and a half and I promise, I learn something different at each hospital I work at. Each hospital has it's own interpretation of what each nurse and unit can do. It has and continues to be a truly different experience in each hospital door I enter. Donna:luck: