Specialty Spotlight: Caring for Patients in a Neurological ICU

The journey back to health is often long for patients in the neurological ICU being treated for a variety of conditions, ranging from stroke and seizures to rare disorders, such as myasthenia gravis and Guillain-Barre syndrome. A nurse in the neurological ICU at Cleveland Clinic main campus shares what it's like to work on the unit and why he loves the specialty, one he never imagined landing in as a nursing student.

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Carol Pehotsky (00:05):

One of the beauties of nursing is all the various specialties that we can lean into and be inspired by. And you never really know what will inspire you to change direction and lead you to a specialty that you feel is your own. We're joined today by David Lucas , a neurological ICU nurse to learn more about the specialty and his powerful story of how he ended up there.

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(00:28):

Hi, and welcome to Nurse Essentials, a Cleveland Clinic podcast where we discuss all things nursing from patient care, to advancing your career, to navigating tough on-the-job issues. We're so glad you're here. I'm your host, David Lucas, associate chief nursing officer of Surgical Services Nursing.

(00:48):

As the Nurse Essentials adventure has gone on, we've started to dip more into different specialties, and you've heard me in the past talk about how becoming a nurse was a later career decision for me. It was something I felt called to do after having been a music therapist and getting to see really what nurses do. I, I felt drawn to it.

(01:08):

And in terms of where I landed in perioperative care, similarly, you know, as I was a nurse on, on a med surge unit really finding myself gravitating towards surgical patients and wanting to get closer to the action and here we are 20 years later.

(01:22):

I'm so glad to be joined today by David Lucas. David is currently, we'll get into that, but currently a registered nurse in one of our neurological intensive care units at Cleveland Clinic main campus. Welcome, David.

David Lucas (01:32):

Yeah. Hi.

Carol Pehotsky (01:33):

So, so we're hoping you're going to share a little bit with us about your story, how you ended up in the specialty, what nurses can learn, and nursing students can learn about the specialty and where you're going next.

David Lucas (01:43):

Okay.

Carol Pehotsky (01:43):

So, would you be so kind to tell us what drew you to nursing and how'd you end up in, in neurological ICU care?

David Lucas (01:50):

Yeah. Absolutely. I feel like from a young age, like young ages in like middle school, high school-

Carol Pehotsky (01:55):

Mm-hmm.

David Lucas (01:56):

... I always thought medicine was interesting. You know, I like the shows. I love Scrubs (laughs) and everything.

Carol Pehotsky (02:02):

Same. Well, we'll get back to that one too. (laughs)H

David Lucas (02:05):

And kind of started, um, uh, in high school, explore the different avenues and everything and thought about being a doctor for a minute and then a physical therapist for a minute. And then my mom really encouraged me. And was like, "You should check out nursing." And I was like, "I don't know if I want to do nursing."

Carol Pehotsky (02:05):

(laughing).

David Lucas (02:17):

And then I ended up shadowing someone and really could see myself going into that field and went into nursing for school and came out and I started off in bone marrow transplant.

Carol Pehotsky (02:27):

Mm-hmm.

David Lucas (02:27):

Was there for about two, two and a half years or so. I started in 2018 and by, you know, mid-2020 or so, like right as we started to get in COVID and everything. I just kind of felt like, all right, I feel like I've seen everything I wanted to see here.

I, I love the patient population. I love what we did. It was great, but I was just kind like every time we, we aim at a patient, send them downstairs or whatever, I was always really interested in the atmosphere and I really looked up to and admired those nurses and the staff and everything. And so, I was like, "I think I want to go into critical care."