Why do a lot of nursing students hate med/surg?

RNMeg · May 2, 2009

I just finished advanced med/surg, and it totally reaffirmed my wanting to go into ICU. It's fascinating to learn the whole picture about a patient..like how their coronary artery disease gave them cardiomyopathy, which caused congestive heart failure..so when they went in to fix the CAD the patient went into respiratory failure..and their systemic hypertension gave them chronic renal failure..and on top of that, the radiocontrast dye caused acute renal failure. I agree with jjjoy, it's more about learning and applying and generalizing the nursing process rather than learning in-depth any specific medical condition. I loved it..but I know a lot of my classmates didn't. It's a wonderful thing that there are so many different personalities going into nursing, because there are so many areas that need nurses who love what they do. :loveya: :nurse:

smartin13 · May 2, 2009

I like med surg, I just don't like the amount of paperwork that we have to do, and the amount of time it takes to do it. It leaves little time for other things like learning what we are actually going to be tested on.

nicolegrow · May 2, 2009

Med/Surg was my least enjoyable rotation. I loved my clinical instructor, got along well with my class, and kept my grades up. I don't feel that there is really enough time for your patients. Nursing is supposed to be for the whole person, and when I have been on Med/Surg floors most of the time the nurse is too busy for her many patients. They get their meds, cleaned, dsgs changed, and turned. If one of the 8 or so patients has a need beyond that all the other patients get even less of the nurse's time. Documenting on that many patients is also very time consuming. Yes it can be done, and RNs are capable of making it work, I just never felt that it is in the patient's best interest for one RN to responsible for 8(give or take)people.

In psych, peds, OB, and now in Critical Care I feel patients are able to recieve more from their nurses. I feel good about my patient experiences in these areas because I was able to give them everything I could as a student nurse and in a couple weeks when I get my RN that is how I want to continue to feel about my patient care.

jenawade25, BSN, RN · May 2, 2009

Med/surg is hard. It's like 6-8 chapters each week, with each chapter being at least 50 pages. Then the clinical rotation also gets intense because you're doing total patient care (assessment, meds, bathing, care plans, etc.). If you have a clinical instructor like I had for med/surg it's a nightmare. She wanted to fail me, she even tried to kick me out of the class. With the intervention of our lead instructor I was allowed to return to clinical. To keep a long story short, I worked my butt off and passed with a C.

rplf29 · May 2, 2009

woah... I HAVE TO ASK,.. WHEN IS MED/SURG WILL BE TAKEN UP IN STUDYING NURSING?,,,, what year..

vashtee, RN · May 2, 2009

I had 3 semesters of med-surg nursing lecture: beginning, intermediate, and advanced. The beginning med-surg class was in my first semester.

I didn't hate my med-surg rotation in the hospital, but those who DID hate it had a hard time with the pace and with organizing care for multiple patients (you get increasingly more patients every semester).

I didn't care for maternity/peds.

KsMICT · May 2, 2009

Med-surg RNs probably don't get the respect they deserve because everything nicolegrow wrote is true. There sometimes just are not enough hours in the day do get everything done. The other day I worked with an RN on a transplant floor and I don't think I've ever seen someone so busy: her phone was ringing NON stop, she had to do a time-consuming admission because the clerk was not there for some reason, a surgeon came by and needed lidocaine to drain an abscess, and of course she had to administer meds, chart, and do everything else that seemed to appear out of the woodwork that day.

Being busy like that certainly keeps you on your toes and makes the day go fast but at some point pt care is going to suffer.

luvbug080688 · May 2, 2009

I had 2 semesters of MedSurg my Junior year. I am just finishing up my last semester of it this week with finals being the week after..duh. It is hard and you definetly have to study but it is totally worth it in the end. The one thing I wish was different for me was that instead of two semesters of a MedSurg clinical, the second semester was split up into a rotation of OB, Peds, and Pysch.

Sarah Hay · May 2, 2009

I am actually studying for my Medical-Surgical I final now. It's brutal. Only three days to study.

86toronado, BSN, RN · May 2, 2009

I just have to say that I love med-surg. I remember our first med-surg lecture after weeks and weeks of mental health. I just breathed a sigh of relief, and said "Thank you, finally a lecture that makes sense!" That's how it felt to me anyway, after so much touchy-feely "tell me more about your feelings" it was so great for me to be back in the land of the definite and the concrete.

jenawade25, BSN, RN · May 3, 2009

My school has two med/surg courses. The first one is a regular semester (15 weeks) and the second one is half of the semester (7 weeks). The other seven weeks we're going to have psych/mental health. We take the first med/surg course in the junior year and the second one in the senior year.

loveshospital · May 3, 2009

I so love medical surgical area which is the base for any specialty.I love to take care of the pt with variety of conditions,this is my first choice then maybe psych.