Did you find Med-Surg class much harder than fundamentals?

MN-Nurse, ASN, RN · Nov 7, 2011

We are wrapping up the first semester and next year I will be in Med Surg. How much harder is it than fundamentals? What did you find was the hardest section/chapter? I'd like to read up early. Thanks.

Yes, Med/Surg was way harder than fundamentals in my program. I liked it much better though.

Your preparation for Med/Surg has already been done - in your chemistry, anatomy and physiology classes. If you worked hard and did well in those classes, you will do the same in Med Surg.

If you didn't learn much in those classes, there is no amount of prep you can do that will help you. So relax, enjoy life and work hard when class starts.

Good luck!

AgentBeast, MSN, RN · Nov 7, 2011

I found Med/Surg to be way easier than fundamentals, but I'm crazy.

Melissa131 · Nov 7, 2011

I found Med/Surg to be way easier than fundamentals, but I'm crazy.

Me too. I'm in Med-Surg I right now and I spend way less time on this class than I did in fundamentals. I do enjoy the content a lot more though. I find it a lot more interesting.

I feel like the content is a lot more straight forward, whereas fundamentals seemed to be all over the place to me.

It's different for every program though, so everyone will have different experiences.

SnMrsSmiley · Nov 7, 2011

hi ! im northmississippi too.... we are probably in the same class lol.

Anne36, LPN · Nov 7, 2011

The way our program is designed it is just harder because our workload increases. The exams come every week instead of every other week. We got a bit more lab work and an extra project thrown into our clincial as well.

labvalues · Nov 7, 2011

Med-Surg is split up into two courses in my program. I'm in Med-Surg 2 right now and so far I have found the neuro material to be the hardest. I suggest brushing up on your A&P and lab values (and their significance). Just take a deep breath and you will get through it!

ImThatGuy, BSN, RN · Nov 7, 2011

I thought it was a lot easier for a couple of reasons. Foundations was a bit ambiguous making that "harder," and acute care was more grounded in pathophysiology making it easier. Foundations taught next to nothing about anything I deemed relevant or interesting, lol.

ashleyisawesome, BSN, RN · Nov 7, 2011

i thought foundations was cake.. i barely studied. med surg was a bit harder, only because i had to actually put effort into it. as long as you read and study youll be fine, its not too bad. a lot of people had trouble with fluid and electrolytes (for me it was my best test that semester, oddly-- a lot of people failed it). so brush up on that info, and just basic normals for physiology of all the systems, so you know what they are talking about when you leanr the abnormals.

Twinmom06, ASN, APN · Nov 8, 2011

our Fundamentals clinicals are done on a med/surg floor - and I hate it!!!

mangopeach · Nov 8, 2011

I'm like Ashley, there were times I barely studied for Fundamentals and still pulled off a great grade on the exam. I knew I could not do that with Med Surg, I had to put more effort into it. Yet, I can't say that it was a lot harder than Fundamentals. In both classes I missed an A by a fraction of a point. The thing that made Med Surg a bit stressful for me was that we had to take it in the shortened summer semester so we had half the time of a normal semester. The exams were back to back so that was insane. More effort to study for than Fundies, but not the beast that I feared. I just finished Peds and actually thought Med Surg was way easier than Peds. We lost more people in Peds than we did in Med Surg.

ashleyisawesome, BSN, RN · Nov 8, 2011

I'm like Ashley, there were times I barely studied for Fundamentals and still pulled off a great grade on the exam. I knew I could not do that with Med Surg, I had to put more effort into it. Yet, I can't say that it was a lot harder than Fundamentals. In both classes I missed an A by a fraction of a point. The thing that made Med Surg a bit stressful for me was that we had to take it in the shortened summer semester so we had half the time of a normal semester. The exams were back to back so that was insane. More effort to study for than Fundies, but not the beast that I feared. I just finished Peds and actually thought Med Surg was way easier than Peds. We lost more people in Peds than we did in Med Surg.

really? i thought peds was super easy! my favorite semester so far, and we did it in 7 weeks! i felt like it was kinda a review of med surg with some tweaks. my instructor was pretty cool though so it made it a lot less stressful.