Med-Surg Roll Call

Specialties Med-Surg

Published

Hi all ... thought it was about time to have a Med-Surg roll call .... please repond by telling us if you work in med-surg .... how long you have been there and if you plan on staying in med surg .... also, please let us know if you hold certification in med-surg through ANCC or AMSN. Thanks ....

I will start ....

I am a nurse manager for a 40 bed med-surg unit. Love med-surg, but am challenged daily by how busy the unit is and how sick our patient population is. I plan on remaining in med-surg for a number of years (at least until I finish my Masters degree and start teaching). I am not currently certified, but am planning on taking the test in October throught AMSN.

I think the thing I LOVE the most about M/S is the diversity of patients we see. You really need to be a nursing generalist to be successful in med-surg.

I am a new grad from an ADN program. I will take the NCLEX mid July. I have been hired on a Med Surg floor under my IPN at our local hospital. I am excited and scared. No, terrified. I did my preceptorship on this floor prior to graduation and did fine. The only reason I am not particularly fond of Med Surg is because I feel that I am not organized enough to be left alone with five patients. I can barely handle four. I keep having these thoughts: What if I screw up? What if I make a med error? Will I get fired or lose my license?:barf02:

The last thing in the world I want to do is hurt someone. The whole reason I became a nurse in the first place is to help people and I love it. Any advice on how to get organized enough to get through the day?:eek: :bugeyes:

Maybe I am just going through the whole "new grad" phase.

Anyway, WHAAAAA. I will quit whining now. I CAN DO THIS!!!!!

I have worked as an med/surg RN for just exactly a year now. So far I love it and I am learning new things day by day. I really don't know of anywhere else that I would work at.

Hi, I was hoping to get some feedback on my situation. I worked for 12 yrs on a primarily hemeonc unit in a military hospital (bmt's and acute leukemics mostly, though we had medsurg as well). For about 10 of those years I was on night shift. My confidence is/was not the greatest so I didn't jump into new learning opportunities. Consequently, I feel like my nursing experience has been somewhat limited. I left the hospital 3 yrs ago and have been doing outpatient infusion (dr's offices) and feel pretty comfortable there. For the past 6 months I've done an occasional med surg shift with an agency and my goal is to do agency work for the flexibility. Needless to say doing med surg with an agency is problematic for me. There is so much to know that my little aging brain gets overwhelmed. My experiences in the hospitals that I've worked at haven't been too terrible considering that the most I've worked at one hospital has been about 4 shifts. I've found the great majority of staff nurses that I've worked with to be very helpful and just downright nice so that's encouraging. I guess my question to staff nurses is, what do you expect from an agency nurse. Do you think that someone like me is suited for it. Any ideas on how I can be successful/comfortable with it. I do have a newfound respect for what medsurg nurses and aids do. It's such hard work! If you've gone this far....thanks for reading!

i am an lpn and have been working on a 42 bed med surge floor for almost 2 years. we do primary nursing and our ratio ranges from 6-9 pts. most of the nurses on the floor are RN's with the exception of about 3 nurses, including myself, however we are being sent to school, tuition paid to get RN degrees. Then our hospital owns us for the next 4 years! (nsg shortage big time). But i must say this. Being a new grad, i have had thee most experience out of all the nurses that i went to school with. i absolutley love medsurge. i like the quick thinking, the prioritizing, the interactions with the patients, and the hands on. i learn everyday. i think it is the best experience for a new nurse. don't get me wrong, there are days that i come home from work and all i can do is sit and stare at 4 walls. or i may pass out and sleep the evening away from the stress that the job can cause... too be expected...if u can't take the heat....then dont do this job eh??

Hi guys!

My history is as follows. I started out graduating in May of 2005. Tried a one year ICU training program close to my house only to be EATEN alive. I was NOT getting much of the training. I could not give or get report, I could not get organized, BUT i got the THEORY part well. Having started last july I left there by Dec of 2005. IT was tough finding work in NY after that happened. Noone wanted to touch me. Finally sent resumes out of state and wound up in Yale New Haven CT in April of this year. It's been going MUCH MUCH better. Have TONS of support now and hoping to get off orientation within the next 3 weeks.

My long range goal is to get back into critical care then move on to training for Nurse Anesthetist. And as i get older I'm sure I'll want to do some teaching as well. I love interacting with people in learning mode and I love organizing information so that will work for me as well.

Thanks for reading!

Specializes in Med-surg, homehealth, and hospice.

Hi,

I am a med-surg nurse and have been since 1990. I have seen a lot of changes in that time. For a while we got only the pre and post surgery patients. Now we are getting a variety of patients and we are finding, at least here, the patients are all sicker than in the past years. We have a big influx of "winter visitors" and we are always very busy in the winter. But it has not slowed down to much in the summers either.

Staffing is an issue with the shortage, and I have heard comments like, I don't want to work on med-surg the work is to hard.

I am the resource co-ordinator (charge nurse) on days. I have a Med-Surg certification from the AMSN. I am also a certified Healing Touch Practioner and do treatments on patients who have pain issues or anxious.

I am not sure how much longer I will stay in the med-surg department. I think I am ready for a slower pace.

Have been in med surg most of my 38 year career. There have been good days and bad days. Usual nurse patient ratio currently 1-8. Work 3-11 now and it is as busy as day shift with all the discharges and admissions. Hosp administration wants a 2 hour turn around time from time of discharge order written to admission of next pt. Makes it difficult to plan your time unless your 8 patients are staying your whole shift.

Was certified in med surg nursing 2000-2005. Unfortunately, certification was not rewarded in any way at my hospital(recognition, pay). The only thing I got out of certification was personal gratification. After 27 years and with only a diploma education I could still pass the certification exam on the first try when college grads with experience could not. Was not enough incentive to try harder to get all the continuing education required for recertification. Maybe 3 med surg nurses at my hospital are med-surg certified. They do now get a luncheon or something.

Specializes in Med Surg, Parish Nurse, Hospice.

i have been a staff rn on a medsurg unit for the past 29 yrs- low on senority totem pole- lot of old, long term employees. we work very hard with a rapid pt turnover. it seems as if we are busier every day. i too am not sure how long my body is going to allow me to work at this pace. i do love med surg nsg because you see a wide variety of pts. some we see more often than we would like to. all in all i work on a very busy floor and staffing is a big problem for us. no one wants to work as hard as we are expected to work.

Specializes in Med/Surg.

I've been a Med/Surg nurse for 25 years. I've always wanted to try something new. But this is my comfort zone now. I love working bedside. Call me crazy! :)

Specializes in med-surg.

Ok, I've worked med-surg for 5 years since school. Unlike most of the posters here, I can't say I love it (but I DO love my patients, and they love me). I work 11p-7a, full-time. Our pt load is usually 6-8. I agree that the diverse group of patients is a daily challenge and can be rewarding. I don't like the way most of the night staff is greeted in the AM by the oncoming staff; I think that they really BELIEVE that our patients are asleep all night! I cannot imagine doing any other kind of nursing at this time. I still feel that I have so much more to learn before moving into any type of critical care area. I applaud the new grads who feel confident enuff to move into these areas right out of school. I still get VERY NERVOUS on the tele floor. I work the float pool, so I work everything except ICU, OB, PEDS, and psych. By the way, I'm an RN, can be very pleasant, and try to treat others as I wish to be treated. I am especially fond of our CNA's (mostly) and treat them well. To those of you who love going to work every day, I applaud you. I get very frustrated with the politics of the hospital, and feel the need to continually stand up for the underdog; I'm not a favorite of management, but I manage to keep my job. Does anyone here know what a "nurse practice committee" does? :cheers:

I am a new grad RN. I am currently working on a Med/Surg unit for the past 2 months. I am having a hard time acclimating to the unit. I seem to shut down when thing get really chaotic. I just can't think when I have 500 things coming at me at once. I don't know what to do. I really want this to work. I have worked very hard to get to this point. I made it through nursing school with A's and B's and I passed NCLEX. I am very kind hearted and caring towards my patients.

I have been told that they are giving me too high acuity levels (3's and 4's) for my level of experience. The experienced nurses try to help me when they can but they are very busy too. The CNA's on my unit (if we are lucky eneough to get one) are not very helpful either. Sometimes I think they don't respect me because I am a new grad and don't always know what the heck I'm doing.

I am very frustrated. I may have to consider looking into other departments that are a bit slower paced but I don't want to be a quiter. Any suggestions?

Specializes in med-surg.

Jeez, D, so sorry to hear that things are so rough, I was there, too. It does get easier with time and familiarity and organization. Ask for help when you need it, accept help when it's offered, seek out new experiences, and have faith in yourself. You are smarter than you know. I know how frustrated I was as a new nurse, and I am amazed at how much confidence I've gained in my skills. Good luck!

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