I feel like I made a mistake with nursing. Did anyone hate med surg but love other floors?

[missSB]

Hello everyone. I'm in my first year of nursing school, so I'm pretty early on, but I would really appreciate your help.

Forever I was deciding between medical school and nursing school. I ended up going with nursing for various reasons. I just finished my medical surgical clinicals and I hated them! I feel so lost now because I thought for sure nursing was for me but now I don't know.

My dad is a physician and my mom is a nurse so I thought I had a pretty good idea of what I was getting myself into. I feel like the medical field is more fitting for me but I just don't want to admit it to myself because my heart was set on nursing.

So my question is... did anyone hate med surg but love ICU or ED or something else? Anyone love med surg but hate everything else? How do floors differ job wise?

I havent done any other clinicals so I'm praying I find my match somewhere else.

Any advice? Thanks everyone!

[EllaBella1, BSN]

Yes, I could never in 10000 years be happy working on a medsurg floor. I bet you would like ICU- it requires a much more complicated skillset and more medical knowledge. I personally love ICU and have no desire to work in any other specialty.

[llg, PhD, RN]

Me. The whole way through college, I said that if the "only job I could get after graduation was an adult med/surg job, I would go to law school!"

But I loved NICU. It's very different.

By the way, my mom was not a nurse ... but my dad was a physician. So were many of his friends. I saw their lives and chose nursing with the intent of getting a graduate education. Dad and his physician friends all told me that I was "the smart one."

[AceOfHearts<3]

I also want to point out that working is not the same as clinical. I certainly cared about the patients I helped care for while in clinical, but at least for me, it doesn't compare to how I feel about people that are my patients now. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but it just felt so much different to me once I was an actual nurse.

[CCRN_CSC_0710]

I hated med/surg, especially in school. I worked stepdown (better) and then ICU (LOVED it) and crosstrained in the ED (not my favorite but better than med/surg). Now I'm in CRNA school. It's overall a much better fit for me.

The best thing about nursing--you can go to medical school later, if you want. See what the next few clinical rotations brings.

[NurseGirl525, ASN, RN]

Let me ask you this, why do you hate medsurg in clinical? That is how I would base my answer. The clinical setting is not an actual experience at all. Now that I'm actually a nurse with a small amount of experience under my belt, I can more accurately see what I like and dislike.

Im in ICU. I love it. I don't know how much I would like medsurg, but I would not have been able to say that in nursing school. There is so much more to the job than that little tiny bit you see in clinical.

I feel like the little you do see is what a the job entails on any floor. Assessing, med passing, assisting with ADLs. An actually on my unit, we have very few techs, so the adl part, is all on us. We clean up the poop, help feed, get the patients up and moving. That's why I ask what don't you like?

In an ICU, there is much more to the charting and you need excellent critical thinking and assessing skills as well. Your patients are critical and you need to see those subtle changes in vital signs and what that means. It's why they are constantly monitored, and you chart it hourly.

Medsurg clinicals are a great way to get a peek into the nursing world, but it's not N accurate depiction. I picked ICU as a new grad for several reasons. First, I love my unit and its atmosphere with my coworkers. It's very supportive. Second, I'm honing my assessment skills. On a 12 hour shift, I do three head to toe assessments. I then may do more focused ones every hour or every two. I'm starting to see the big picture and what it means when I start seeing those small changes on the monitor.

What have you seen so far? What are you liking and not liking?

[RNNPICU, BSN, RN]

I too in nursing school did not like the general med/surg clinicals, when I graduated I started in the PICU and LOVED it, and haven't looked back.

[annabanana2]

Not only did I dislike my med/surg clinicals, I disliked ALL of my clinicals that happened in a hospital setting. So once I graduated I went to work in the community! NBD. There are lots of jobs out there. Finish school and you'll find one that fits you.

[Sour Lemon]

I actually loved every rotation and clinical site except for OB. As far as working in the "real world", it is only OK.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

I hated my med/surg clinical rotations so much that I have purposely avoided working in an acute care hospital for the duration of my 11-year nursing career.

Comfort and fulfillment exist outside of hospital nursing gigs. It all depends on which direction you wish to take your career. Good luck to you!

[Libby1987]

Hate is too strong but I didn't like med surg back when it was more doable nor would I like the role now.

I have loved my career in Home Health, well after my first couple of years when I become good at it. I've loved the autonomy, problem solving, teaching, making things happen, the response from providers and ancillary team and probably most of all seeing people beyond a clinical setting.

However many have struggled with and rejected the driving, paperwork and lack of a concrete schedule.

[calivianya, BSN, RN]

I hated my med/surg clinicals, too. I've always said I'd rather live under a bridge than work a med/surg floor. I give serious credit to nurses who do well on those floors. They have more patience than I do.