Is post surgical the same as medical/surgical?

Nurses General Nursing

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I just got an internship and I'm super excited. They said I would be in a post-surgical unit. Is that the same as medical/surgical - basically the unit where everything goes, haha.

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

My best guess is that it would be PACU (surgical recovery).

Don't exactly know, and this is with 30 plus years experience. It could be PACU, post anesthesia care unit? It could be a surgical floor, not a med/surg mix unit, where surgical patients go after PACU?

You will be exposed to a lot of new stuff where ever you work. Don't feel dumb to ask the "dumb" obvious questions like "I'm not exactly sure what a post surgical unit is?"

No, med/surg is general medical problems while a post surgical unit is specifically for recovering surgical patients unless they are Ortho. (We have a separate ortho floor, you might not) The surgical floor takes lots of bowel resections, amputations, general surgery stuff. They come there after leaving PACU- which is more focused on immediate and short term reviving/monitoring of patients from anesthesia and determining pain control. You will see a variety of ages on a surgical floor and many, many PCA's.

Don't exactly know, and this is with 30 plus years experience. It could be PACU, post anesthesia care unit? It could be a surgical floor, not a med/surg mix unit, where surgical patients go after PACU?

You will be exposed to a lot of new stuff where ever you work. Don't feel dumb to ask the "dumb" obvious questions like "I'm not exactly sure what a post surgical unit is?"

Haha, thanks. I did feel dumb, like something I should know, but I guess I should get used to that and ask those dumb questions.

Surgical is better than med-surge :yeah:. I think it's a good place to start as an Rn because you get a taste of med-surge (trachs, wound care, peg tubes, etc.), but it is mostly pain control and watching for post-surgical complications.

Specializes in MS, LTC, Post Op.

I worked a post op floor. We got back everything from pacu that wasn't an ortho surgery. We had A LOT of gastric bypass patients.

We also got our fair share of med/surg patients.

It was a fun unit to work, I really enjoyed it.

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