Advice For The New Nurse Entering Med-Surg

Specialties Med-Surg

Published

Here is your chance to give some advice and counsel to new RN's and LPN's entering their first clinical job as a nurse. What advice would you give them?

I am going to make this a sticky so that it is always available on the top of the forum for our newer nurses to see right from the start. Looking forward to seeing some of the great advice that our experienced nurses can lend to the newer nurses ..... :balloons:

Specializes in Nursing Education.
Hello everyone. I've read the posts on this section which are very helpful. I begin my very first nursing job this week on a medical surgical telemetry unit. I wanted to know if anyone can give me any specific advice in terms of orientation and for my first month. I will have a preceptor for about 2-3 months and will get tele certified. I'm excited and nervous. Thanks!

How is your orientation going? Please post a follow-up and let us know. Hope all has gone well for you as you start your work on a med-surg floor.

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.
I know that we all see the humor in the foley statement and I have heard it actually used by more than one nurse. I see it as a hostile threat and wonder if it is exactually "theraputic". In a way it's like (to me) saying to a child "if you do such & such I will do balh, blah, blah." Do you like when a pt or family says "if the Dr.s, hospital's, nurse's don't do what I want then I'll"....fill in any threat.

I'm no angel, but, if we want fairness and respect then, that is what we need to exhibit to our pt.'s.

Aw, come on, lighten up......this is a JOKE. :uhoh3:

However, in my experience as a patient, knowing I'd have to be catheterized if I couldn't void was a powerful motivator to get up and make it work. When I take out someone's Foley, I tell them we'll let them go for a few hours to see if they get the urge to void, and six to eight hours before we start worrying about them not voiding. Then, a little while later I'll get them up to the bedside commode or the toilet, then start the water running in the sink and do some guided imagery with them ("think 'water' thoughts", I tell them), and then give them some privacy. Nine times out of ten this works like magic.......it's only rarely that I can't help the pt. get the waterworks going.

And if all else fails, informing them that I'll HAVE to cath 'em almost always gets the process going......the other day, I had a pt who hadn't voided since her Foley had been D/C'd five hours earlier, and she'd tried several times but couldn't produce more than a few dribbles at a time. She was getting pretty uncomfortable, and she'd already had to be straight-cathed once so I was figuring on doing it again, and I'd fetched a new catheter from the stockroom in preparation. But I did my usual thing first, and it was the imagery that finally got her going ("Imagine flushing a toilet, and out goes the water through your ureters, down, down into the bladder, and out") although she stated that it was the implied threat of another straight cath that finally made things start moving again. :)

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I have spent my first year out of school in med-surg. I would not trade a minute of it. I love it...I have learned so much, and feel comfortable doing just about anything now. I would advice sucking in all the knowledge you can. Ask questions and for help. my teacher told us that med/surg is the HEART AND SOUL OF NURSING, she adviced us to do at least one year of it. I took her advice and am glad I have. Just go to work with a good attitude. Help others, and they will help you in return. Get organized..... I will probably stay a med-surg nurse forever.

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How is your orientation going? Please post a follow-up and let us know. Hope all has gone well for you as you start your work on a med-surg floor.

Hi. My orientation is going well. I really like my floor and the ratio is 4-5 pts per nurse- I'm up to 4 and work w/ my preceptor and share the assignment- which is great. I like that I'm not getting thrown to the wolves. What is difficult is my preceptor has only been there for a year so there are things it seems she may not even know to teach me or show me, which is what I've discovered when she's off and I occassionally work w/ a difft nurse. But, other then that it's good. It's hard being new though- at times I feel like I just don't have enough knowledge to be able to answer my patient's questions or provide thorough and solid teaching- so that's hard. But, the pts are usually great- the interns are nice but sometimes it seems like they don't know what they are doing.. thx for asking and happy new year!

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Hello everyone. I've read the posts on this section which are very helpful. I begin my very first nursing job this week on a medical surgical telemetry unit. I wanted to know if anyone can give me any specific advice in terms of orientation and for my first month. I will have a preceptor for about 2-3 months and will get tele certified. I'm excited and nervous. Thanks!

Hi there

I am a new nurse too.I'm very happy and excited but at the same time scared and worried about the time is gonna take to really feel comfortable and confident with my job.I will be working on a med surg/telemetry floor as well.I am terrified of making a mistake.When in school I rotated through hospitals that were all computarized.before giving your meds you would scan the patient id band and documentation was also in the computer.Now,I am in a place that everything is manual and that scares me a little.I am very surprised that a hospital like Baptist H. in Miami don't have this computer system already.I'll put 200% of myself tolear fast but still I know is gonna take a few mistakes in order to learn.Any advise for the tele new nurses?

DyeRN

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Hello everyone. I've read the posts on this section which are very helpful. I begin my very first nursing job this week on a medical surgical telemetry unit. I wanted to know if anyone can give me any specific advice in terms of orientation and for my first month. I will have a preceptor for about 2-3 months and will get tele certified. I'm excited and nervous. Thanks!

Congradulations to you.

My advice would be to find yourself a good mentor that takes the time out for you. You will run across people that don't want to share information or assist you in your learning process. Don't get frustrated, it come's with the territory. Keep your books on hand at all times and refer to them when needed. Alway's ask questions, that's how you learn. Absorb everything you can; watch, listen and learn. Also, learn from your mistakes and others too. Finally, Keep on trucken and good luck to you. :)

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Specializes in ABMT.

Remember nursing is not a fashion show

Hm, I disagree..I think that c. diff poop color on my shoes really brings out the blue of my eyes...

:chuckle

thanks for all these awesome, helpful posts.

rebecca

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Specializes in Med Surg/Tele/ER.

I am not a nurse yet! but a student starting my 3rd semester in August. This will be my 1st med surg class & would love any tips or advice from the pros. I posted this in the student section & got a couple of tips but I would love to have advice from ya'll. Thank you in advance for your help. :)

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Specializes in Nursing Education.
I am not a nurse yet! but a student starting my 3rd semester in August. This will be my 1st med surg class & would love any tips or advice from the pros. I posted this in the student section & got a couple of tips but I would love to have advice from ya'll. Thank you in advance for your help. :)

What types of tips are you looking for? There are many med-surg nurses that frequent this forum and I am sure they can help. Just let us know what you are looking for.

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Specializes in Med Surg/Tele/ER.
What types of tips are you looking for? There are many med-surg nurses that frequent this forum and I am sure they can help. Just let us know what you are looking for.

I'm not really sure myself. Maybe what I should focus on learning before my classes start, I know fluids & electrolytes are a biggie, & I really don't know what to expect in class or clinicals. I know this year's senior class lost about half the class the 1st, 8wks so I don't want to join them! I don't mean to be vague but any thing ya'll remember/or wish you had known when starting med surg would be great! Thank you so much.

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I'm not really sure myself. Maybe what I should focus on learning before my classes start, I know fluids & electrolytes are a biggie, & I really don't know what to expect in class or clinicals. I know this year's senior class lost about half the class the 1st, 8wks so I don't want to join them! I don't mean to be vague but any thing ya'll remember/or wish you had known when starting med surg would be great! Thank you so much.

Welcome and congrats in deciding to enter the rewarding field of nursing. Here's some tips: 1. Know why the pt is taking each medicine, if you don't know feel free to ask the pt- they will teach you so much. 2. Practice doing history's!- we didn't do any admission assessments or history's in nursing school but now I do them all the time- it will help you learn to be thorough and obtain very impt info. on your pts and provide teaching along the way. 3. Look for opportunities to learn- ask the nurse to let you know if there's anything going on that you can help with or learn but also give them example's- "any foley's, trach care, even priming tubing" etc.. Experienced nurses forget that everything is new and and exciting and even doing an enema is good experience. 4. Ask questions- no question is dumb. 5. After moving pts, make sure to put the bed back down and bed rails up- I can't tell you how many times I have found bed rails down and pts way high up 6. Be prepared- if you go the hospital to prep the day before, go in and introduce yourself to the pt, and do a history- it's much easier then trying to read the MD's handwriting, and/or ask the nurse caring for them. Track the history/events since their admission. 7. Most importantly- try and have fun!! Nursing school is challenging and difficult, but, your impact on your pts is life-changing, they will tell you things and trust you in ways they wouldn't with their own family/friends. Best of luck

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Specializes in Med Surg/Tele/ER.

Well thank you so much for taking time to give me those tips! In my 1st clinical we did not get our pt the day before & that made it really hard. I felt like I was spending all my time with paper work & not the pt. I asked my instructor if I could get my pt early & went to the hosp. the day before (on my own time). I cannot tell you how much this helped I knew the meds, dx, talked to the pt,the nurses & had my plan of care ready to go. I felt prepared as much as I could be for a student :uhoh3: Thanks again

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