Excited!! & ? about med/surg semester :)

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first, i just want to tell everyone that i am officially a level 2 nursing student today!!:w00t:im a dork, i know, lol. next i was just wondering what i can expect for level 2, which for us, is going to be med/surg? and to all of u graduating, :ancong!::bow::bow:

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CONGRATULATIONS! I just finished my med/surg I rotation :)

Our new skills were passing meds, IV stuff like changing an INT to a continuous, IVPB, IVpush meds, removing IVs - basically everything but starting them! and trach suctioning.

The ones I ACTUALLY did in the hospital were passing meds (including subQ and IM), IV push med, and removed a couple of IV's.

Another big thing for us was doing a full assessment and charting it.

The nurses on our facility were there if we needed them but our p/t was TOTALLY our responsibility (I&O, wound care, meds, etc)

Umm.. what else?

I think that was about all for clinicals...

For the theory portion, if you're trying to get a head start - know normal electrolyte levels and what your patient will present with if abnormal (hypokalemia/hyperkalemia etc)

know about balancing fluid and electrolytes (hypertonic/hypogonic solutions etc)

Umm, KNOW ABG's (arterial blood gases), ex acidosis/alkalosis, resp/metabolic, compensated/uncomp

I think those are probably the most important concepts for you to know for med/surg... we also went through obesity, gi disorders, resp disorders and all that fun stuff but your program may vary..

Feel free to pm me if you ever need anything!

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

Congratulations!

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Specializes in ICU, Emergency Department.

For us, Med-Surg was a lot more focused on our assessments; head to toe and ongoing. We had opportunities to give multiple meds to one patient, via whatever route they needed except IV Push. (many of us gave meds through a PEG or crushed in applesauce for a pt with dysphagia, as well as Sub-Q's, suppositories, eyedrops and otic meds.)

I'm so glad I'm almost done. Two more weeks & a final and I'm finished! :)

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I am now in my Med./Surg. rotation of Level 2 and from the sounds of it we get to watch some surgeries, and the basic taking care of pts. and passing the meds. for said pts. that are not IV. Oh by the way it is LPN. The normal drug cards and procedures.

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first, i just want to tell everyone that i am officially a level 2 nursing student today!!:w00t:im a dork, i know, lol. next i was just wondering what i can expect for level 2, which for us, is going to be med/surg? and to all of u graduating, :ancong!::bow::bow:

your head is gonna spin:no: i just finished med surg, and i'm exhausted on to management five weeks , 10 days of clinical and 2 exams on on to grad. counting the days. don't be surprised how quick the next the next few semesters are gonna go..

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Specializes in Med/Surg < 1yr.

:yeah:Congratulations!!!!! I just finished my last of three Med/Surg rotations. I'm in a diploma program and all three rotations were intense. My instructors focused on knowing the pt's med! You should know the class, dosage, therapeutic range if it applies, how it's administered, the drug's action, the side effects, adverse effects, food and drug interactions and anything else that is pertinent about the drug. For example, you should know that you need to take the patient's blood pressure and pulse (preferably apical) before giving cardiac meds so that if they are low, you don't drop them dangerously lower. Remember in charting, if it's not charted, it's wasn't done. In our clinical, we were responsible for doing AM care on the patients so we came in, looked at pt's chart, printed off report, listened to report, took vitals (manually) and assessed patient, charted, gave meds, waited for them to finish eating, did AM care and any wound care or other procedures, charted, reported off the floor to the nurse, gave back the rest of meds, went to lunch, came back, made sure we assessed our patient when we came back and taped the dayshift report and did post conference. If we had time after we did wound care or other procedures we looked in the patient's chart to check for changes in the patient's health whether good or bad. We also were responsible for checking for updated orders. Sometimes, we got to go to the Cath lab, OR, dialysis or wherever the patient was going for special procedures and then we charted when we came back. Theory for us was four hours long Monday and Friday, with four hours of clinical prep on Tuesday and eight hours of clinical on Wednesday and Thursday. Our careplans were due on Thursday which consisted of one and half page pathos, long drawn out care plan, med sheet with all of the above med information, and then a lab sheet with all of the patient's labs and diagnostic tests and what the significance of the test were and if there were any improvements in the patient's labs that were abnormal. We were always busy but we learned alot. Time goes by very fast so make the most of it. Take it one day at a time!

Best of luck in your next rotations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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OK, Im scared now :chair:! lol, I'm familiar with passing meds, giving injections, and head to toe assessments, so hopefully that will benefit me somewhat! I do know that a lot of time is going to be spent on fluids and electrolytes. I am excited, however, because this semester felt like it went on forever to me. I'm probably going to be biting my words after I see how fast next semester goes! I learned a lot in level one but I'm glad to be going on to level 2, I just wasn't sure what to expect. Thank you all so much for your replies, they really helped give me a little more of an insight as to what's to come next semester. One semester down, 3 more to go!!!:rolleyes:

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