Nursing Career Pathways

This pathway consists of a group of six diverse units serving a complex population of high-acuity medical patients in acute, step-down and critical care settings. Because of our unique individual patient populations, this pathway gives the new graduate nurse opportunities to learn basic and advanced nursing skills.

Units Included: MCC, 4S, 8E, PCU, 5H, 12E

Learn More

The medical center houses a Comprehensive Stroke and Spine Center, recognized for our state-of-the-art infrastructure, staff and training to treat patients with the most complex neurological disorders. Clinical advancement opportunities are available, with advanced certifications, including CCRN, CNN, NVRN-BC and SCRN.

Nurse participation in research studies and clinical trials is also encouraged.

Neuro Critical Care is a 24-bed ICU treating various disorders, including tumors, strokes, aneurysms, spinal surgeries/ disorders and traumatic brain injuries. Care for these patients can include intracranial pressure monitoring, intraventricular drains, craniotomies, surgery and innovative technologies such as deep-brain stimulators, neuro thrombectomy, stenting and aneurysm coiling. Two Acute Care areas serve the neuroscience patient population with 57 beds. Neuro/Stroke (6E) is the medical center's acute care stroke unit. Neuro/Spine (6S) specializes in postop neurosurgical patients.

Units included: NCC, 6 East, 6 South

Learn More

As a Level I Trauma Center, the medical center serves as a comprehensive regional resource that is a tertiary-care facility central to the trauma system. The medical center has a 23-bed Trauma-Surgical Intensive Care Unit (TSICU) and three Acute Care Units totaling 90 beds dedicated to caring for our trauma population. Over the past several years, the medical center has averaged over 7,000 trauma cases with over 4,500 of the patients getting admitted to the hospital. Injuries for our trauma patients can range from minor injuries requiring 24-48 hours in the hospital to critical, life-threatening injuries that require comprehensive care from many specialties over an extended stay.

Our nurses are trained to care for our high-acuity and complex patient population no matter what the injury and mechanism may be. This is an opportunity for a new nurse to learn and develop a unique skill set in providing care to our trauma patients.

Units Included: TSICU, 10 East, 9 East, and 7 East

Learn More

The medical center's HLVI Center of Excellence is the region's dedicated heart hospital and kidney transplant center.

HLVI provides expertise in clinical care, teaching and research.

This pathway includes various nursing experiences. The Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU) is a 24-bed unit providing care to critically ill patients after cardiac, thoracic and vascular surgeries. It also cares for patients with coronary artery disease, structural heart patients, advanced life support including extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) therapy and other critically ill patients. The Medical/Interventional Cardiology unit (4H) offers care for patients, including our structural heart patient population, with coronary artery disease who require medical therapy or interventional treatment including structural heart patients. The Cardiothoracic Surgery unit (7H) is the primary unit for our cardiac and thoracic surgery patients after recovery in CVICU. 7H also cares for other patients requiring cardiac diagnostic tests and treatment such as those with heart failure. 8H serves as our Pulmonary Medicine unit caring for patients with respiratory disorders such as COPD, cystic fibrosis, and pulmonary hyptertension. HLVI is the only adult cystic fibrosis center in the region and is a leader in the care of patients with pulmonary tension. Our Vascular Surgery and Transplant Unit (9H) specializes in vascular-disorder and surgery patients who have undergone kidney transplants. The patient population may be surgical or medical depending on the nature of the disease.

Units Included: CVICU,7H, 9H, 8H, 4H

Learn More

This unique pathway provides a collaboration among four highly skilled units seeking to provide new graduate nurses with expansive skillsets and environments that cultivate continuous learning. This pathway includes the Emergency Department (ED) which offers skills involving rapid assessment, intervention and stabilization. As the Level I Trauma Center, the medical center sees approximately 80,000 patients annually in this 82-bed ED.

The Medical Surgical Telemetry unit is a 30-bed acute care telemetry unit located on the 6^th floor of the East tower.  Our team is comprised of registered nurses, nursing assistants, health unit coordinators, a clinical nurse specialist and case manager that are committed to providing excellent and efficient care to patients with a wide variety of diagnoses (chest pain, COPD, trauma/ortho, heart failure, post-operative care, etc.). The diverse population of patients we serve gives the team the opportunity to maintain many of the skills required of multiple specialty units.

Our commitment is to promote the mission and values of UTMC by providing an excellent experience focusing on patient and family centered care with a team-oriented approach. We understand that collaboration with all departments within the organization is vital to the outcome of our patients. For these reasons, our team is actively involved in shared governance, values continuing education and promotes professional development to better serve our patients and community.

Our second Medical Surgical unit is a 30-bed acute care telemetry unit. Our team is dedicated to providing high quality patient and family centered care to patients with a wide variety of medical diagnoses.  Our goal is to use teamwork and positivity to create a culture that promotes compassionate care of our patients and person and professional growth of our team. We pride ourselves in having a family-like environment and having teammates who are supportive of each other. Alone we are strong, but together we are unstoppable! We are committed to the mission, vision, and values of UTMC which means that personal growth and development are important to us.  Professional growth and development are encouraged through participation in shared governance, being an active member of our unit council, achieving specialty certification, and being engaged in research and evidence-based practice.  These principles help us better serve our patients, team, and community.

Units Included: ED, 5E, 7S, 11E

Learn More

The Surgical OR Fellowship includes seven months of didactic and experiential training in general surgical nursing during our OR course, 12 months of operating room experience in multiple service lines, and 17 months of specialized experience within a perioperative service line. The fellowship offers a partner/mentor program with an experienced RN and other career development opportunities and 1:1 nurse-to-patient ratios.

Units Included: Surgery/ Operating Room

Learn More

The Center for Women & Infants gives moms, babies and women at all stages of their lives the best care possible by offering a caring, highly trained team, and the latest equipment as well as the ability for families to stay together. As the region's Perinatal Referral Center, we provide a holistic, patient-centered approach to care for both mother and baby and frequently care for high-risk patients. In Labor and Delivery, we are an ER, a surgical services department and an ICU, as well as an all-in-one labor, delivery and recovery. Our Mother/Baby unit provides couplet care while teaching and providing emotional support. The team partners with the family to help them learn how to care for their new baby. Our Antepartum/GYN floor cares for patients who are pregnant with complications but not in labor, as well as GYN surgical patients and some mother/baby couplets. Our Level III NICU provides care for some of the most fragile and critically ill patients in the hospital, from very tiny babies to babies with any number of complications.

While caring for the infant, we also care for the family with a lot of support and education.

Units Included: Labor and Delivery, Mother/Baby, NICU, Antepartum/GYN

Learn More