Med-surg First

Nurses General Nursing

Published

remember in the old days when everyone had to do med-surg first before moving into specialty areas. i was just wondering how everyone else felt about this. i work med-surg and also post partum. seems like many of the new grads who go straight to pp instead of doing med-surg are lacking some very important basic skills. i.e., ng tubes (yes, we do get these sometimes in pp), scd's, blood sugars on Mom's and what they mean, iv skills, time management skills. ok, so it is very obvious what i think about this subject, what do you think.....

I went almost streight into OB and have never regretted it. I may not have been fab at NG tubes, but neither are the seasoned maternity nurses because it's been ages since they did med surg anyways. I had to explain what digoxin was to one of my colleagues the other day. I think she worked med surg sometime around the ice age;) Med surg where I got my first job was an absolute hell hole and if I had to stay there longer than I did (about 3 months) I am sure I would've quit or been sued.

Our current unit manager actually prefers to take the new grads instead of the ones who do 6 months in med surg (thouhg with the shortage she'll take anyone). She says the reasons are that it isn't fair to the med-surg units to use them for 6 months and then leave. It's also less stressful to just have one orientation in one area in one year than to be moving about. And she says she can groom them better if they haven't picked up any bad habits.

Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

As someone who has spent about 14 years coordinating NICU orientations ... I would much rather have a new grad than someone with a couple of years of adult med/surg. The fields are so totally different that it often becomes a problem for the nurse trying to switch from adults to NICU. My units have had much more success orienting new grads than adult med/surg units -- both in terms of having them actually complete their orientations and in terms of becoming long-term employees.

Now ... it's a little different if you are talking about Level II Nursery experience or some other type of unit where the population would include babies. That kind of experience can be helpful to a new grad planing on a NICU career.

llg

Specializes in Med-Surg, Long Term Care.

I've worked Med/Surg for almost 10 years now, but when I started my career, there were few hospital positions available in my area. So I worked as a charge nurse 3-11 at a LTC facility and am very thankful that it was my first job, although at the time, I REALLY wanted a hospital position. However, working in LTC taught me so much: how to deal with people-- both the residents and co-workers-- to delegate, prioritize, and to just get comfortable touching people. I know it sounds crazy, but in nursing school, there just wasn't enough hands-on experience with patients to prepare me to feel comfortable, and I never had worked as an aide, so I was terribly green. It was a very difficult job at first (3 days of orientation, then caring for 30 residents), but I think Med/Surg would've killed me just starting out, with the pace, stress, amount of knowledge needed, and my personality. LTC was stressful enough, but I know that Med/Surg would've chewed me up and spit me out as a new nurse.

That being said, we get a lot of nurses using Med/Surg as a training ground for other positions, and that's fine-- I hate to see them go when they're great nurses and co-workers, but you can almost see Med/Surg as another year of school, to REALLY learn and apply what they can't possibly teach when you're in school.

Where I work our COO is adament about having each new nurse do her 6 month med-surg rotation. Even if they are employed as a nurse tech or LPN in a specialty area, they must all go through the 6 month med surg rotation. Most of them have learned a great deal and appreciate the foundation to go on to where they wish to work.

+ Add a Comment