Where to go from med surg

Specialties Med-Surg

Published

Specializes in Med Surg.

Hi everybody,

I have been a med surg nurse for almost 2 years. I have enjoyed the experience but I know that med surg is something I don't want to do for the rest of my career. I used to think I wanted to do ICU but I'm almost afraid to go to a higher acuity of care and sometimes I feel like I'm already burnt out on bedside care. I don't know if it's also because I'm afraid to go out of my comfort zone. I have considered outpatient surgery, home health but I am unable to really decide what should be the next step. Any thoughts? Thanks!!!

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Tele, Dialysis, Hospice.

Have you thought about hospice? I did both inpatient hospice and on-call home hospice nursing and it was so rewarding. The patients and their families are so appreciative, and you get somewhat of a break from the technical side of nursing and are mainly involved in symptom management, death protocol, and emotional support. If end of life care doesn't bother you, hospice is a great field to get into.

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Go somewhere completely different like ED. I've always wanted to go to ED, will transfer once I settle down from traveling.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

Honestly, I believe that it is all trial and error. You may never find what you really love if you do not branch out. I had friends that only wanted L & D throughout school. Once they began working in that field though they realized it wasn't for them after all. So try something different. In a year if you do not like it try something else. That is the beauty of nursing.

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Specializes in Home Health- LTAC- Telemetry-.

IMHO you could try any new area to see which one will hit that excitment button... don't go to home health, there are better options out there for you

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Specializes in Mental health, substance abuse, geriatrics, PCU.

The beauty with working in med-surg is that it makes you very versatile and will give you a great foundation for most specialties. Working in critical care can be very scary but the truth is, is that you are going to receive more training before you're sent out on your own (i.e. cardiac monitoring, ACLS, etc.) and once you receive that training, plus orientation, and once you take care of a few very ill patients you're going to feel more comfortable.

One option you should seriously think about is maybe transferring to a stepdown unit or a telemetry floor. These patients have a higher acuity that those on a med-surg floor, it would allow you to be able to get used to interpreting cardiac rhythms as well as obtain ACLS you also will be managing more drips that can be managed on non-telemetry floor, Cardizem, dopamine, etc. although most stepdown units do NOT titrate these drips. Stepdown units are fun to work on and you will learn a lot and can be a great stepping stone to ICU.

Best of luck!

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Specializes in PACU, Surgery, Acute Medicine.

Try shadowing in a few areas so you get a better idea of what each one entails. The right next step for you depends on what rocks your boat! We can't tell you what that is. You'll have a better idea for yourself if you can spend a little time in some different areas and see what actually goes on there.

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