Dude, what's with the stock photo on your profile?  Doesn't make you look legit.

 I am a clinical assistant on a Neuro science floor and plan to stay there when I graduate with my ADN in Dec.  It can be challenging but to tell the truth I love it.  The acuity of the patients are high and you need to be very on top of your game because these patients can change in a blink of the eye but .....  it is rewarding when you see a stroke victim get up out of bed after a week and even if they are a max assist they are up.  The hard part is the diagnosis of young people with brain tumors and a very bad prognosis but you can touch their lives and the families lives and feel good about what you do.  You see alot of return patients so you get to know the patients and they don't just come and go.  They aren't just a number such as room 1032 A they have a name and a face.  I would consider it if you like a challenge.

Dealing with paralysed patients can be hard but again you can make a difference.  I've dealt with patients young and old.  I had a patient that was was admitted and diagnosied with Guillian-Barre Symdrome one week after graduating from college.He was on his way back from Virginia beach with his friends and started having trouble walking when they stopped for gas and before he knew it he was in the local ER unable to walk.  He was paralyzed from the waist down.  During the time he was with us he went through depression (understandable) but we were there for him and each day when you left him you felt like you had done something purposeful.  We deal with MS patients and see the same patients back over and over with excerbation of the disease and know their families because some of them are very young women.  We have made the difference and saved a woman's life when she came in in Myasthenia Gravis crisis.  She had not been diagnosed yet and she went into respiratory distress and our quick actions saved her. 

All the patients that I have dealt with that are paralysed have touched my heart and maybe in some way I have touched them..  The one thing you always need to remember is that they are just like you and me they just can't do the same things we can.  We are there to help them through and make them realize that their life is not over and make sure that they don't fall into the pits of depression and that they realize  their full potential. 

As you can tell I really do love my job and it may not be for everyone but when you are doing clinicals you will have the chance to see if you like it or if it just isn't your cup of tea.  Trust me something will reach out and grab your heart and you will know what you are meant to do.  Just don't settle for something just because it is easy or because you are scared to try and fail.... we all fail at sometime or another the difference is whether you learn from that failure and continue on.  Good Luck!! 

Keep me posted on how things are going for you.

I'm glad to hear that you might consider neuro nursing.  if you need any help with anything keep me in mind.  I may not always have the right answers but I know alot of people that can help.  The neuro surgeons on our floor are usually very helpful and willing to explain when you really don't get it.  I know that if I wouldn't have started working on a neuro floor I may not have considered it because it would have scared me but like I said it challenges me.  Good Luck ad let me know how everything is going.

My mother-in-law died from ALS  and it is a very hard disease to watch.  I think the hardest thing about it is that it takes the body but leaves the  mind.  I have to opportunity to take care of a patient on clinicals this past semester that has ALS and it was amazing to me that he could keep his spirits up.  He comes in for  RESPIT care for about a week every three months to give his wife a break.  This man was physically active all his life.  He was wonderful stories to tell and I found him absolutely wonderful.  If anyone would like to read a great book about ALS "Tuesdays with Morrie"  is a real tear jerker but it really gives you an in site into ALS and what it does to a patient.  I cried so much toward the end that I couldn't read.  We have a great hospice program in our area and eventually I would like to work with them.  I have to have @  my license for a year before I can apply but I would truely love touching peoples in this way.