Are All New Nurse Grads Required To Go Into Med Surg First?

Nurses General Nursing

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As a pre-nursing student, I am curious about something. I am hearing that most hospitals require you to work in med surg before you are allowed to go into other specialty areas. Is this true? My passion is to work L & D, but I am also hearing that it's a specialty that you can't do right away? Why is that. I realize I am probably putting the cart before the horse at this point since I still have to get into nursing school (hopefully this fall), but these questions have been on my mind. Thanks for input.

I am about 9 months into my first job as a New Grad OB Nurse. Just know that your first year in nursing will be tough - no matter what area you go into. OB is a difficult area to start out in because there are so many general nursing skills to become proficient at (IV's, lab draws, different routes of med administration, etc), so many OB skills to learn (SVE's, EFM monitoring, etc), and as always time management. We learn so many skills in nursing school, but it often takes awhile for us to be fully competent in the real world. Just know that with L&D, you will be doing more than just laboring moms and participating in lady partsl deliveries. I work in one of the largest L&D units in the country (who by the way had a fabulous OB Internship), and I'm expected to not only labor moms, but I also have to circulate and recover C/S pts, as well as take care of our unstable High Risk pts, and be proficient in straight up Postpartum Care. Each of these areas will have their own set of skills. I feel like I get my Med-Surg experience when I'm taking care of our High Risk clients (they're not always high risk for OB reasons and PIH pts would fit right in on a Med Surge floor..........).

Nurse2B, there's another possibility you might not have considered as yet (and probably haven't, given your post): you might LOVE another area of nursing you didn't know about before! While you may find that after graduation you still want to go into L&D, you might also well find that there's another area of interest to you first.

It's not unusual for someone to have their heart set on one area, only to find that another area suits them better. And the other way around, as I can personally attest: I had NO desire to go into med-surg, and now that I'm here, I LOVE it! I definitely didn't see it as something I *had* to do; I interviewed for this unit after weighing various options and deciding it would be a great place to get my skills honed (all of what I'd learned in school, and many more). I didn't want to limit my learning just out of the gate, and as it turned out, I learn something new all the time still. Surgical techniques are always changing, meds change and treatments change, and all of this leaves those of us working m/s to be anything but bored :)

Anyway, just wanted to throw that out there, that what you think you don't want now, you just might, and what you DO think you want, you might decide later isn't the best match for you.

In any event, good luck to you!

Thanks so much for your advice. Please don't misunderstand me - I didn't mean to imply working in med surg would be boring. I am sure it is anything but! I'm not sure it's meant for me, but as I said, I know I am jumping the gun here. I will have to see how I feel once I begin nursing school and have some experience in different areas. Thanks again for your encouragement!

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