Help! I am not sure what department??

klone, MSN, RN · May 1, 2006

I would say that if you're unsure about what you want to do, you should start in med/surg. Nothing wrong with building that foundation.

dee2b · May 3, 2006

I completely agree with you on the foundation part. I am not confused about wanting to work in the OR. That I am sure of. But I am also pretty confident that I won't spend my whole career in the OR. I am pretty sure that I won't enjoy med/surg and feel that if I start there it might be the end of my career. It is just not an interest for me. I will do it if I have to in order to be well rounded and if it opens doors for me to work in other areas...but not my first choice :-)

ortess1971 · May 9, 2006

I am of the opinion that you should make the nursing shortage work in your favor. Most of your instructors will tell you that you have to do a year of med-surg. However, this is a very old school way of thinking. I say, go where your interests lie-even if you want to go to another area later, you can do that. They are desperate for people and that's not going to change anytime soon. I have known some people that went back on the floors(UGH, why would they want to) and they simply took nurse refresher courses to get back into the grind... oops I mean groove! A lot of us from my class are specializing which I think is awesome. I have lots of respect for floor nurses but they are underpaid and overworked....Also, don't worry that you have to do any med-surg to go into the OR. Med-surg isn't going to help you and going to the OR first may actually benefit you if you want to work on a floor. You will be one step ahead of realizing surgical complications and your sterile technique will kick butt. The OR is so interesting and I find the doctors to be fine at least at my hospital-they give us the proper respect because they know we can make their cases go smoothly.