Hello and welcome to our unit!
I’m Kim Hurt, MSN, RN, NE-BC, Manager of the Medicine Stepdown unit. Although our patient population serves adults, we are located on the 14th floor of Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt.
The environment on our unit is friendly, focused on teamwork, and flexible to accommodate our patients’ needs.
We care for adult patients 18 and older who are being treated for various medical diagnoses. These diagnoses cover a wide range of disease processes, including pulmonary, renal, hepatology, endocrine, and post-procedural patients. Some of our patient population requires knowledge of wound care, as well as care of patients on some continuous medication drips, including insulin. One of the perks of working on our unit is the expertise you will gain from caring for such a diverse population of patients.
Our patients are unique because of their diverse diagnoses and specialized medical needs. As an intermediate level of care, our patients often come directly from the emergency department, stepping down from the Medical Intensive Care Unit, or stepping up from the general medicine units.
Our nurses are successful because they have strong assessment and communication skills, rely on each other for support, and adapt quickly to new challenges. Our unit also has dedicated provider services. Our patients are cared for by two teams, each consisting of a hospitalist and nurse practitioner. This allows for strong communication with our providers and improved patient outcomes.
We orient new nurses to our unit by providing a six-week unit-specific orientation with dedicated preceptors.
We encourage professional growth.
Suppose your career goal is to gain strong clinical experience in different areas. In that case, the Medicine Stepdown unit can help by exposing you to skill sets and a strong foundation that can crossover into other units.
If you have any questions about our unit, please email me at kimberly.hurt@vumc.org or visit Work for Vanderbilt Health: Nursing Careers to explore open nursing positions.
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