Definition of Medical Floor in St. Louis

[honeycalifornia]

Hi there,

I am new grad RN and will be interwieving for RN position in St. Louis for general medical floor. Can anyone sort of compare and explain to me what type of unit this is? In CA we don't have anything labeled as such "medical floor" so it is hard for me to compare it to other units. Is this similar to med-serge or more intense...Ideally I would like to work on general medical surgical floor as I feel this would expose me to variety of patients with different needs, and I thought as a new grad it's important to have good training that encompasses different levels and types of care needed. So do any of you feel that this medical floor would give me such training like on med serge or even better? I don't want to get stuck working on the floor where I really don't learn a lot.

Any replies would be appreciated.

[TeleNurse2010]

Hi there,

I am new grad RN and will be interwieving for RN position in St. Louis for general medical floor. Can anyone sort of compare and explain to me what type of unit this is? In CA we don't have anything labeled as such "medical floor" so it is hard for me to compare it to other units. Is this similar to med-serge or more intense...Ideally I would like to work on general medical surgical floor as I feel this would expose me to variety of patients with different needs, and I thought as a new grad it's important to have good training that encompasses different levels and types of care needed. So do any of you feel that this medical floor would give me such training like on med serge or even better? I don't want to get stuck working on the floor where I really don't learn a lot.

Any replies would be appreciated.

A general medical floor is pretty much like a med/surg floor, except patients having surgery may go to a surgical floor. However, if the surgical unit is full, some of those patients will probably end up on the medical floor, so you'll still see alot.

[honeycalifornia]

Thanks so much for your reply.. So then medical and surgical are too different floors. So what type of patients do you see on medical floor? Is this sort of a step down from ICU? Are they like more stable patients on this floor then surgical or would you say it's about the same...I guess I am trying to get into something with more intensity and variety for learning and not so much end up on the floor where pts. are semi stable and don't require any serious treatments.

[listener]

I'm still a nrsg student but i've been a tech on an acute care gen med floor for 2 years. I think if you subtract the the surgery patients from med-surg, that should give you a pretty good idea of what you have. We see lot's of patients with renal failure, liver failure, patients with complicated medical problems that have yet to be sorted out, patients often with multiple problems including DM, HTN, CHF, pancreatitis... difficult things like stevens-johnson syndrome... it's never a dull moment and you'll have ample opportunity to learn and won't be bored. Hope this is helpful. Also, general medicine at a teaching hospital might be more challenging and varied than at some other hospitals. Good luck!

[honeycalifornia]

Thank u so much...That defintively clarified some of the differences.