Re: ANCC Medical Surgical Certification Results Originally Posted by ColtsRN85 
Thanks for the info and link. I guess I am really soured on taking this exam. It seems meaningless to me. Why say that you are "certified" in the area that is so basic and not specialized. This type of nursing has alot of "average" people and many who could not do well in any other areas. I find it ironic that there is a "certification" for it.
The bolded part seems to say that nurses who aren't smart enough for any other specialty end up in med/surg and that med/surg is so simple that granting certification is kind of silly.
Quite frankly, I think med/surg is a demanding and challenging specialty. Med/surg nurses don't just concentrate on a specific and expected set of diagnoses and meds as they do in cardiac or renal or neuro. They have to know it all. Hundreds of meds, dozens of diagnoses, lots of co-morbidities. And the acuity keeps increasing. Patients who would have been sent to an ICU ten years ago are now ending up in med/surg.
To imply that med/surg is the bottom rung of the ladder and is a specialty area not worth certifying is to demonstrate a gross underestimation of the skills, capabilities and wisdom these nurses possess. Untalented nurses don't generally last long in med/surg. It's just too tough a field.
The testing itself may be of questionable value, but med/surg nurses rock.
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