I work on a stroke/neuro floor at a stroke certified hospital I am a stroke certified RN and I have very mixed feelings about it. It is very rewarding, interesting, and has offered great opportunities for learning. But it is also SO tiring. As mentioned above stroke patients are so impulsive at times. Most of them are older in age, and have some mixture of dementia/Alzheimer's and one or more strokes under their belt. They also come along with families who tend to be either fairly overbearing or nonexistent. I can't decide which is worse, being chased down a hallway by a family member who is insisting for the fifth time I get water for their NPO parent (and yes, it has been explained why they are NPO), or watching someone who has never had anyone visit them waste away. It also stinks because since my hospital is stroke certified basically EVERYONE with slurred speech is admitted for R/O stroke. ( even if they had slurred speech as a baseline for their underlying dementia and they also come coupled with "sniffles" from a nursing home). It takes up hours of time and charting to meet the guidelines for stroke patients at my hospital. And because we're certified it is nearly impossible to get doctors to actually fully rule out and abandon the "stroke path" because they don't want to be liable so we are stuck with all this extra work and charting. Even if every test comes back negative. All that being said, I do really love my job. It offers so many learning opportunities, and for the patients who are true strokes, it is so rewarding. Watching someone get just a little better every day is incredible. Seeing CT scans getting progressively better is exciting, and seeing someone who was fully flaccid on admission start to walk is so exciting. I enjoy being able to spread teaching to patients and their families, and seeing the patients who do get better progress is incredible. If you are interested in neuro nursing I would give it a chance. Worst case scenario, you could transfer to another floor after a bit. Right? I can provide you more if you like, I can't see myself doing this long term because so many patients are super high care and dealing with families of these patients can be so overwhelming. I'm lucky because my hospital has sufficient staffing and takes my unit 120% seriously due to their certification status, so there is almost always sufficient staff/help. I would be sure to ask about their staffing, and also look into their turn over for nurses. Ask about their certifications, and if it will be only neuro or if there is a mixture of diagnoses. I would also make sure that there would be an opportunity to switch floors if you do find yourself disliking it. Let me know if I can provide any further help/advice! Good luck!