Am I crazy because I love med surg???

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I mean I really love working med surg, but I hear so many people say they hate it. I can't understand why? Could someone tell me why they don't like it or why they do? I would love to hear both perspectives.

gcupid- you pretty much just summed up an average shift on Med/surg perfectly!!! it's all soooo true!!!

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Specializes in Neonatal ICU.

My only experience with Med/Surg was as a nursing student, so my perception of it may be skewed. I just felt like I was running my butt off, every patient needed a million different things, and you had to know SO MUCH about everything. Top that off with my great inexperience and I was stressed out, especially when we started doing everything for 4 patients--RN and tech duties.

I admired the nurses I worked with (and I always told them so :loveya:) for making it look so easy all while dealing with a pesky student at the same time. My brain cannot hold all that info for so many patients at one time. The great RNs and LVNs made it look so effortless, but I knew better. I think Med/Surg is a specialty all its own and one I could never do well.

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.

Good for you for finding something you like to do! I myself did not like med/surg.

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If med/surg had a 4 or 5/1 ratio like the accuity of the patients dictate it should, I suspect a lot more people would like it. I mean the variety is endless and it is just so darn interesting. However, when you are working with 8 patients and sharing an aide with another nurse, or if you have your own aide you have 10 to 12, it gets pretty overwhelming. Someone will read this and say, "you should NEVER accept a patient assignment with 12 patients". My answer is, "I didn't, thus my current state of unemployment".

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I'd think that more nurses would like it, or at least not hate it, if they had adequate time and resources and colleageal support to provide the kind of care that they feel proud of. As others have noted, in too many places, prioritization becomes not a practice of 'A B or C *first*?' but becomes a *regular* practice of 'A & B not C *or* B & C not A?' And when the nurses are then blamed for not getting to C or A or whatever, it makes for an unpleasant work experience.

But with a supportive environment, I can certainly why med-surg would be appealing to some!

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I absolutely LOVE MedSurg! Its the diversity of illnessess, the constant unpredictability, the fast pace!

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Specializes in Med Surg.

I like Med Surg so far because I like the feeling I get from knowing that no matter how complex the pt's situation is I can think it through and do something to help make it better, and I enjoy educating pts about what's going on with them.

During nursing school, I questioned myself as to when I would eventually be able to "put it all together". It was during my med surg rotation that I was able to start doing so. During my rotation one nurse had asked me the question - why is this pt getting Lasix while receiving a unit of blood. Without even thinking i told her point blank - I have no idea. She told me that she was pretty certain at this stage (half way through nursing school) i had the information in my head but was not putting it all together, then she proceeded to bombard me with a host of other questions until I told her exactly what she wanted to hear which in a nutshell was: there is a risk of fluid overload when giving this particular pt blood and giving the pt Lasix would allow her to pee off excess fluid and prevent fluid overload.

I will never forget this nurse, she had asked me this question in front of the pt and my responses also helped educate the pt. I cannot explain to you the boost of confidence I got from that nurse's approach. From that moment on, I knew I could become a med surg nurse.

I feel I will continue to like med surg as long as I know what im doing and think in terms of pathophysiology, so I am committed to reading up on nursing skills and other nursing essentials during my spare time.

Also it was very important to me to have a good first experience as a new nurse and so far I have been blessed and feel honored to work with a group of very supportive med surg nurses.

So no: You are not crazy for liking med surg.

As for the person (Hygiene Queen)who like psych - you are not crazy either. I happen to be one of those people that liked two extremes: Critical care and Psych. I chose to do my 120 hrs of preceptorship (my last quarter in school) in psych and it was excellent, but the weird thing was i would have liked to do some med surg as well at the time. My med surg experience so far has brought me in contact with pts who are depressed, anxious and have suicidal ideation and whenever I can I offer words of encouragement and help them reframe their negative thoughts into more positive ones.

So to you Hygiene Queen: You are not crazy for liking psych!!!

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Specializes in med-surg 5 years geriatrics 12 years.

I'm in med-surg because I enjoy the unpredictability of it. It never becomes dull and repeptitive because no two patients are the same. The constant change keeps me on my toes.

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Specializes in ER, LTC, IHS.

I am very glad that there are nurses out there who love medsurg because I hate it! I'm in the ER and lovin' it! I have never worked the floor and don't plan to so a big Thank You to all you MedSurg nurses out there!

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Specializes in ER/Acute Care.
Please feel blessed beyond compare...I'm a new nurse so I may be wrong but

Sometimes I hate the job but I see it as a stepping stone to bigger & better things...

Generally stating, what I dislike about med-surg is that you are expected to do everything for everybody, be happy about it & chart qthing within a short amount of time.

1. Antagonizing Family Members (Pet peeve-if you are not genuinely concerned, &/or family is requesting qthing, complaining about small things that I can't do nothing about take your fill in the blank home)

2. Qthing falls on the nurse-pt didn't get scheduled respiratory treatment (get the nurse), lab tech failed to get blood specimen for labs (nurses fault), PT/OT didn't come to walk patient or unhooked patient from IvF but didn't hook them back up (Nurse needs to do it),

Calorie count initiated & patient didn't receive food tray (dont get dietary, get the nurse), tv remote chair broken (get the nurse),

Why didn't the Doctor order such & such? (As a nurse you should have known that the patient would need this or that. Shouldn't the person with the degree to practice medicine have known as well) It's crazy because we can't order anything..but we have to tell the doctor without actually telling the doctor to order something.

3. CHarting-do something, chart it. okay cool but now you need to chart the same thing on paper 2 different areas, on CPU in 2 different areas and follow all the preliminary worksheets & follow up work sheets. My place of employment has a 3 more worksheet limit. If I feel like 3 additional worksheets are added & it's a waste of time, I'm turning in my two week notice.

4. NO aides- (pet peeve) the least we should have is sufficient aide staffing on qshift. (ice pass, blankets, changing) I can't chart without being interrupted. 6 pts 1 pt with bowel prep, 1 with diarrhea & both are unable to use the toilet (total care), 1 getting blood, 1 who stays on the call light jus b/c he or she can't sleep, 1 whose a drug seeker (pain med due q3hr but calls q2hr "just bring me anything I can have-referring to phenergen,benadryl,etc) & the list goes on...

5. Fresh Admits- needing to get med reconcilation (Something deep within my soul tells me that this is the job of the physician) If they are the ones deciding what's going to be continued they need to come up here & figure out what medicines they are taking.

5.Admits from ER...why send me a patient with a foot ulcer possible osteomyelitis with no pain meds ordered. Aren't the doctors right there?...or start an IV that looks like it is good enough to last for a few hours?Pre-op check list! Who thought of this? Shouldn't the perioperative nurse handle this? Why am I having to stop qthing I'm doing to hurry up & get this sheet done when it can be done downstairs? (this is similar to #2, but if qthing falls on the nurses it even more so falls on the med-surg nurse.)

I hate when almost all of your patients need you around the same time. I know how to prioritize but it's still stressful. & I don't think press gainey scores take into account prioritization...

I just wanted to say that I love how you use the whole "q" abbreviation in your post. It adds a certain je ne sais quoi to your experience and I totally have a visual of you running around balancing charts, smiling, and giving bolus doses of happy juice to family members. Thanks for sharing! :yeah:

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I dislike med-surg because I can have 10 to11 patents a night. What is there to like about that?

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

I can appreciate what everyone here is saying.

I spent 18 years in med-surg, thinking it was time for a change and took a desk job with my BSN in hand last August.

Hated it.

Going back to floor nursing in January. Must be crazy.

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