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| No. 10 | 
May 16, 2007, 06:00 PM
 Re: Bad Rep for Med Surg
Morale becomes low when after all the rushing around and multitasking and missing lunch a nurse does not feel that she provided good care. If there is too much work to be done, it will not all get done.
My med surg unit could have used one or two more nursing assistants. When several patients are incontinent, need feeding(takes a looong time), and help to the bathroom, a couple of good CNA's are worth their weight in gold.
My hospital has a great IV team. This relieved the nurses of some of the IV starts.
 | | Advertisement Sponsored Links | | | | No. 11 |
May 16, 2007, 08:30 PM
Re: Bad Rep for Med Surg
I've recently relocated and made the switch from an infectious disease unit to Med Surg, and I absolutely love it. I sing med surg praises to anyone who will listen. My mother, who is also a nurse at another facility, loves med surg as well, and doesn't hesitate to say "I told you so." So far, I love the variety of pts. I do have love/ hate for the pace. Sometimes, in order to keep up with orders, charting, new admits, and discharges etc... I feel like I'm failing my pts because I can't be more attentive. On the hand, I start my shift at 0700, and before I know it, its almost time to leave. I can't believe how much I'm learning either. I know I'll never know it all, and have a loooooooooooooooong way to go before I know nearly as much as my coworkers, but when I'm going through my assignment, assessing pts, checking labs etc... I'm finding that I know a little more each day. Unfortunately, at least I gather from my former classmates, the perception is that Med Surg isn't a specialty, and it just doesn't sound as good as going to the ER or an ICU. I know I lack experience, but I think in order to clear Med Surg units of the bad rep is to start by word of mouth from nurse to nurse to potential nurse. Hospitals/ employees also need give med surg the respect of being a specialty, just like the ICU's, ER, L&D etc.
| | No. 12 |
May 17, 2007, 09:08 PM
Re: Bad Rep for Med Surg
I've been on med/surg as a RN for a year next month. WOW! I made it a year, unbelievable. I was a LPN for 3 years before, 1 in subacute and 2 in a failry busy Urgent Care. I can't imagine how I would have done it without the excellent LPN experience.
Med/Surg is H-E-double-toothpick and I love it. Well, I loved it after 7 months, it finally fell altogether, until then I was ready to quit.
I think it's a combination of many things. 4-5 patients on eve's and 6-7 at night, all with completely different diseases/illnesses, and all we're supposed to be experts on all of them??? Some are new admissions, some are discharges, some don't speak English, some have major family issues, some are mentally ill, or developmentally delayed in addition. You walk into a patient's room and they look at you and have complete trust in you and think you know their entire history and outcomes for their disease process, and uhhh..... we just read 5 minutes of their history before we hit the floor. Most days I can barely keep straight if Terry in room 2200 is a male or female, or wait, is that Pat is 2201???
There's just not enough time to do everything. We ALWAYS leave feeling we forgot to do something, check a coccyx, reinforce that dressing on a wound, give emotional support, all that little stuff we thought we'd do when we were in nursing school. There's always a crisis, a fire to put out. Charting sometimes is minimal at best. And helllo???? we're actually supposed to update the careplan? yikes... We wake up in the middle of the night remembering we forgot to pass onto next shift an important detail. OR if we work nights, we wake up at noon remembering this important detail and then, well, forget it, our sleep is wrecked for the rest of the day.
But... when we do a good job... and we actually get a chance to make a difference.... doesn't it feel incredible???!!!
Rock on med/surg nurses, we rule!!!
| | No. 13 |
May 17, 2007, 10:04 PM
Re: Bad Rep for Med Surg Originally Posted by veronica butterfly  4-5 patients on eve's and 6-7 at night, all with completely different diseases/illnesses, and all we're supposed to be experts on all of them??? .....
There's just not enough time to do everything. We ALWAYS leave feeling we forgot to do something, check a coccyx, reinforce that dressing on a wound, give emotional support, all that little stuff we thought we'd do when we were in nursing school. There's always a crisis, a fire to put out. Charting sometimes is minimal at best. And helllo???? we're actually supposed to update the careplan? yikes... We wake up in the middle of the night remembering we forgot to pass onto next shift an important detail. OR if we work nights, we wake up at noon remembering this important detail and then, well, forget it, our sleep is wrecked for the rest of the day.
4-5 patients on evenings? And 6-7 on nights??? That's awesome ratios, in my book. More like 5-7 patients on evenings, 7-10 on nights in my area. And no, there's no way NOT to miss something! But I can tell you that after my first few months was up I *NEVER* lose sleep over what I did or didn't do, did or didn't tell the next shift. I'd be headed for total personal destruction if I did; it's not healthy! I do my best when I'm at work, and when I'm off, I'm *OFF*.
Which is one of the reasons I think I'm surviving better than many of the newbies on my unit!
| | No. 14 |
May 18, 2007, 09:20 PM
Re: Bad Rep for Med Surg
I have been on MS for a year now, and do love it.....but I am sick of trying to care for more pt's than I feel is safe. I have been floated to Tele quite a bit....5 pt's max....what a dream!!!! You guessed it that's probally when I am going.
| | No. 15 |
May 18, 2007, 11:56 PM
Re: Bad Rep for Med Surg
I enjoy med-surg because I'm learning a LOT about different illnesses, and I'm getting to put to use all those critical thinking skills and technical skills that I learned in school...but I will be leaving med-surg...not because of any staffing issues, etc...but when I went to school I went only because I wanted to be a psych nurse...I was a psych nurse at home in Alabama but when I moved here there were no openings on the unit...rumor has it one will be here shortly...so I'm soaking up all that med-surg knowledge and I will be floating out to med-surg for 2-3 shifts a month to keep that knowledge...To me, med-surg and psych go hand-in-hand...they are, to ME, the 2 most important areas of nursing...just my opinion!! lol
Anyhow, to make a long story short, I suspect that other people have a certain area stuck in their head that they want to work in, and only work med-surg while waiting for openings...I dunno...it's been a great place for me to work so far though!
| | No. 16 |
May 22, 2007, 09:31 AM
Re: Bad Rep for Med Surg
I am loving this. So many great replies. I actually have an alterior motive for this thread and I hope you all will continue to post!
Before I say this I want you to know I'm not delusional. I know my hands are probably tied.
I've worked on at my med surg job for 3 years. In a short 3 years I AM the senior nurse. Now, I've only been a nurse 3 years. That's some turnover isn't it! But in that 3 years, I've come to love my floor. I hear nurses moving on say how I'm crazy or just don't know any better. Yep, I float to the other floors when they need a hand, but I do actually look forward to returning to my pergatory floor.
Now the delusional part, I plan to stay at this job. I was thinking if I could find some reasonable suggestions or things I could do myself maybe I could make a small difference. Or maybe I could present the info I get here to my dept in hopes of (delusional part is about to happen) making it better.
Keep posting. I want to know every angle here.
I personally think the graduates come to the hospital to work doing everything they can to avoid us because they hear the horror stories and are in fear. Or they see it as where "nurses who can't make it elsewhere" go and they don't want to start there and risk getting trapped in "loser land"
| | No. 17 |
May 23, 2007, 12:03 PM
Re: Bad Rep for Med Surg
And some new nurses don't want to start there because they've seen and heard the disatisfaction and poor working conditions and fear they'll burn up and give up on nursing altogether if they start there.
| | No. 19 |
Jun 02, 2007, 01:42 PM
Re: Bad Rep for Med Surg Originally Posted by kellyskitties I am loving this. So many great replies. I actually have an alterior motive for this thread and I hope you all will continue to post!
Before I say this I want you to know I'm not delusional. I know my hands are probably tied.
I've worked on at my med surg job for 3 years. In a short 3 years I AM the senior nurse. Now, I've only been a nurse 3 years. That's some turnover isn't it! But in that 3 years, I've come to love my floor. I hear nurses moving on say how I'm crazy or just don't know any better. Yep, I float to the other floors when they need a hand, but I do actually look forward to returning to my pergatory floor.
Now the delusional part, I plan to stay at this job. I was thinking if I could find some reasonable suggestions or things I could do myself maybe I could make a small difference. Or maybe I could present the info I get here to my dept in hopes of (delusional part is about to happen) making it better.
Keep posting. I want to know every angle here.
I personally think the graduates come to the hospital to work doing everything they can to avoid us because they hear the horror stories and are in fear. Or they see it as where "nurses who can't make it elsewhere" go and they don't want to start there and risk getting trapped in "loser land"
I don't think you're delusional. It's nice to see a positive thinker. Tell the nay-sayers you're not crazy, just "obnoxiously positive". That's my motto.
Not to jinx myself, but I'm going to start my very first job next week in Med-Surg, and I really think I will like it there. With all the training and reading and thinking I have done, I feel I am well prepared to handle the challenge (read : I have the training to know what to do, and the perspective to expect chaos). Maybe all you experienced med-surg nurses out there just snorted at my baby nurse optimism, but I don't care. 
Also, I think another reason for the high turnover (which I don't think has been mentioned yet) is that many nurses, including many med-surg managers view it as a training ground where baby nurses lose their training wheels and then speed off to their fruitful career. It's all about expectations.
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