Anything besides med surg

avaloncar, BSN, RN · May 18, 2013

Med surg is a great place to start off for those wanting to go off to those specialized areas. Most of the time new grads or those with less than a years worth of experience gets placed in med surg. But if you have a little experience in psych you might as well go that route. OR, I think you may have a better chance getting a position in that if you already have experience. But if you can't get into those areas you are interested in, you might as well do med surg for a year and move on out. lol. My first job was in pediatrics but that was the only thing being offered to me at the time. So sometimes its luck. Hope that helped.

Good luck.

loriangel14, RN · May 18, 2013

A lot of people have their hearts set on getting a job in the speciality they want right out of school and will turn their noses up at a med surg job.While I don't subscribe to the whole " new grads should always start out in med surg" mantra, it's not a bad idea if the opportunity presents itself. There are some fortunate new grads that do get jobs where they want to be right out of school and that's fine. Why not? If you are interested in psych and you can get a job in that area then that's great.These days it's mostly about getting a job period.Good luck with whatever you choose.

lynds80 · May 18, 2013

Thank you. I'm in a med surg position now and I really am not happy. I was wondering if other positions like OR, rehab, health department , occupational health require med surg exp. I really enjoyed psych, and actually have a job offer for a psych position now, I just don't want to limit myself fr te future.

loriangel14, RN · May 18, 2013

I would take it if that's where you want to work.I don't think you will be limiting yourself. If you leave psych for another area you will have a learning curve to deal with but that is true of any new position.For some reason any psych nurse I have ever met says they wouldn't do anything else.

Editorial Team / Admin · May 19, 2013

Whether other positions require med/surg experience will depend on facility policies. Way back in the day when I was looking for my first job, I interviewed at three hospitals. Two took new grads into any specialty, provided they interviewed well and positions were available, and the third required 1 year of med/surg before nurses could transfer to a specialty. Keep in mind though, in the current job market dream jobs are hard to come by. You definitely should not leave your med/surg position until you have another job lined up. Also keep in mind, by being a hospital employee already, you already have a history with your employer- this can either work for you or against you, but does come with some benefits such as access to internal job postings. Also look into your facility's policy- mine does not allow transfers until the employee has been on their current unit for 6 months, and the current manager can hold the employee for up to 90 days following acceptance of an offer in another department.

calivianya, BSN, RN · May 20, 2013

You can go anywhere immediately these days if you can find a hospital with a good residency. There are very few of my classmates that have taken jobs in med-surg because there are so many new grad residencies nearby. I've honestly seen more facebook postings about people getting accepted into critical care, labor and delivery, and emergency than med-surg, and quite a few of the med-surg people are now disappointed they took med-surg and afraid they gave up a better opportunity because med-surg was the first offer they got. It honestly depends on where you live. There are still a fair amount of my graduating class without jobs, though, so take that with a grain of salt...