[UnitRN01]

Hi everyone,
Background: I did 15 years of Med/Surg nursing, quite successfully. Some of this time was spent doing agency nursing. I ventured into other departments of the hospital (ICU 6 mo/Endoscopy 1.5 yrs), then left the hospital scene and have not worked in clinical nursing for over a year now, while pursuing my BSN (got it) and now MSN (in progress) degrees.

My question for you all is: I'm thinking of going back to the agency to work Med/Surg. Do you all think that I'll transition okay, seeing that I've been out of clinical nursing for the past year? Previously, Med/Surg was my specialty, and I was actually thinking of certification in that area, at one time.

Your thoughts are appreciated!

Thanks,
UnitRN01

[Monielena]

I would certainly like to hear other's opinion on this. I'm sort of in the same situation myself.

[Monielena]

For some reason I couldn't edit my original post, so I'll just type it here in a second post. I too had been out of nursing for a year so I could work on pursuing my BSN and I've started doing med-surg for an agency while doing so. Someone on the board recommended that if you haven't done med-surg for awhile, it's best not to pursue it unless you can get some form of new grad orientation to the floor. I will admit it is hard, but I think that if you can review some of the stuff (like how to read EKGs, etc.) and with your 15 year history of working med-surg, it will be easier for you.

[UnitRN01]

Thanks for responding.

So, since you've been out of Med/Surg for a year, you just started doing Med/Surg through the Agency again? Did you get an orientation to help you re-transition to the floor?

Just wanted to clarify your post.

Thanks,
UnitRN01

[Monielena]

Originally Posted by UnitRN01

Thanks for responding.

So, since you've been out of Med/Surg for a year, you just started doing Med/Surg through the Agency again? Did you get an orientation to help you re-transition to the floor?

Just wanted to clarify your post.

Thanks,
UnitRN01

I originally did Surgical Stepdown with a lot of medicine initially, so when I joined the agency I decided to do Med/Surg. The only orientation I got was on the Psych unit where I was oriented to some of their computer systems and their medicine kardexs. The actually machines where medication was stored I already knew because my previous job used them as well.

[Dachsielover]

Originally Posted by Monielena

I would certainly like to hear other's opinion on this. I'm sort of in the same situation myself.

Me too....