Define Med-Surg

[hkk1895]

I am only a student and not sure if I'm even allowed to post here but here goes...

My instructors are constantly encouraging us to seek out a job on a med-surg floor after graduation because it will give us a wide variety of experiences and an environment in which to practice skills. I am embarrassed to even ask in class but what the heck is med-surg? I've had two semesters of clinical in hospitals and have never seen a floor labeled as such. What kind of floor is considered med-surg? Thanks to all who can shed some light on this conundrum.

[llg, PhD, RN]

Med/Surg is a general term referring to any unit that takes care of adult in-patients that is not an ICU and not a unique area such as Maternity or Psych. From an administration and/or education standpoint, such units have a lot in common, generally sharing a lot of the same equipment and procedures -- unlike the ICU's, pediatrics, L&D, ED, OR, etc. that each have more unique needs.

Over the past several years, it has become common for units to refer to themselves based on the particular type of med/surg patient housed there -- such as orthopedics, oncology, telemetry, neuro, etc. -- but they are all med/surg units. Even though each of those types of units has specialized skills/knowledge associated with them ... they have more in common with each other than they have differences. In small hospitals, they may have only 1 unit for all of those types of patients and house them together.

Back in the old days, when the NCLEX exam was 5 separate tests that took all day instread of just one test, the 5 tests were:

Psych, Maternity, Pediatrics, Medical, and Surgical Nursing.