I dislike med/surg, do i have to do it?

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I just graduated in May with a RN BSN and have been hired as a supervisor in donor services (RN required) at a local bloodbank where I've worked as a lab assistant for the past 3.5 years while in nursing school. I am really happy that I have been hired for this position. I get to travel to the mobile blood donation sites and supervise the phlebotomists, assist with collections, perform QA etc. It's exactly the type of thing I wanted to do when I graduated from nursing school!

I really enjoyed community nursing and was depressed when everyone kept telling me that I needed to do med/surg (as if you're not a real nurse if you don't....believe me, people have actually said that to me!) I don't like the stress of running around, taking care of 5-7 patients (with my license on the line), dealing with doctors, patients' families (I feel as though I don't have the opportunity to help them as well as the patient), discharges, meds, admits, surgeries, testing, labs, low staffing...aaaaahhhh! Part of me thinks that I made the right choice in deciding to take this job and not go to the 3rd shift med/surg interview that I had. But there's still a little part of me that feels as though I didn't make the right decision. Alot of nurses say that I'm limiting myself and my career, and everything I learned will be lost. I was going to try to find per diem med/surg work...but since my FT job is already every other weekend, that would leave me with NO weekends off! That, on top of having to do med/surg, would make me so miserable. :(

Does anyone else, that is already a nurse in the field, think that you NEED med/surg, even when you know that you're NEVER going to work in a hospital. The closest I would get to med/surg is a community clinic or outpatient setting.

One of my friends that is a nurse said that if in 5 years or so I decided to do med/surg, that it may be a little more difficult, but I would just need to find a hospital willing to train me, and that not all would be lost because I didn't do it right out of school. Now that's only assuming that I would ever change my mind...I sincerely doubt it. I do want to continue with my academic career, and hope to get a masters in community health nursing. And who knows, maybe I'll go for my PhD. As for right now, I want to get comfortable in my own skin as a new nurse, and not think of what the future holds...but I find it hard to do that because of all the med/surg pressure that I'm under.

Please let me know what you think...

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If you are happy where you are, and intend to stay in a similar area for the rest of your career, then why would you need med/surg experience? As long as an employer is willing to train you with the skills you need for your job, then there should be no problem.

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Specializes in ED, ICU, MS/MT, PCU, CM, House Sup, Frontline mgr.

nope, it sounds like you do not need med surg. i am copying, pasting, and editing a response to a similar post here ya go:

i hate my current job!!! i will be leaving this position as soon as my new start date arrives. my point of this post is if you happen to like this job and you happen to be happy with expanding your career in this area, it really does not matter that you ever step foot on a medical surgical floor! who knows? you could move into other related areas... the sky can be the limit if this becomes your passion...

in other words, do not focus on what you may be missing in med surg unless your career goals require you to start on a similar floor. for example, my goal is to someday be a great trauma nurse then move into admin and run a trauma unit. i also want to move into policies and politics related to providing excellent care in trauma nursing as an expert in my field. thus, i had no choice but to begin at square one and work in the acute care setting before i can develop into the type of ratchetty old nurse that physicians fear, nurses respect, patients love, and politicians listen too ...! gl!:nurse::twocents:

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

Even though I appreciate the skills that I would have learned there is no way I could have done 5 weeks of med-surge let alone a year. I knew it and went right into psych where I plan to stay. Gotta love the med-surge nurses that will do anything to send their psych patients to my unit as soon as they are stable or even if they aren't stable if they can get the D/C ok from the Doc. They can't deal with them but its interesting how us "unreal nurses" can. :D

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I feel the same way, I'm currently working on a Med-Surg floor (specifically for kidney/liver transplants) and I HATE it even though it has only been 6 weeks. I know I don't want to work in the hospital for more than one year of experience. Why should I even work there now? I would rather work with people in the community, teaching them to take care of their health issues or work as a case manager. I see no problem with you not working on med-surg and going straight into the field you want, you can always go back. You might just have to find a hospital later that will be willing to teach you to hang IV's again, but so what? You will be so much more expeirenced in other aspects of nursing! Good for you that you found a job you love in the field you want! :up:

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Thanks for all your support so far...I look forward to hearing from others (for better or for worse) :wink2: I agree with a lot of what people have written. I respect med/surg nurses for all that they do...but I can't find the will to enjoy it for myself. Alot of positions in the hospitals not only require med/surg experience, but they require recent med/surg experience. Therefore, I could go be miserable for a year and try to come back to it in a few years and they would still have to retrain me because I would be "out of practice"! :banghead: I guess I'm just afraid of forgetting everything I've learned...but then again, when you specialize in a field, you're not going to remember everything you've learned in school. And if you'll never use it, I guess it doesn't matter...and if you do need something you don't remember very well...I know plenty of books in which I can look up the information! :wink2:

And as for Jules A...one of my favorite classes, aside from community nursing was Psych! It was so interesting and complex. Many nurses that I've talked to while in clinicals think that it's boring and you just hand out meds...I can't agree with that at all. The job is what you put into it. If you want to just hand out meds, then that's exactly what you'll do. If you want to really engage in therapeutic communication etc., then you will be a Psych nurse.

Thanks again for your posts...I really needed to hear it.

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Well, I kind of made the same choice as you! I worked for 2+ years in a SNF and hated every second. I KNEW I didn't want to do hospital nursing- ever. I even went on an interview on an ortho floor and almost ran out of there. Everyone clicks with something different. I think if I HAD to do med/surg in order to be a nurse, I would have quit my career. Thankfully, there are plenty of options. I work as a Public Health Nurse and I LOVE it. I get to do more teaching than anything else during the day. I know I am making a difference and I'm able to be the type of nurse I know works for me. Some days I wonder if I'm making a mistake but I come on allnurses and read the posts/stories and get panic attacks from the comfort of my own home. I know that the hospital arena is not for me. It's not for everyone. I know some nurses who LOVE med/surg. Thank goodness we all have different interests so we can care for different groups of people. I'd be interested in research or administration one day.

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Well, I kind of made the same choice as you! I worked for 2+ years in a SNF and hated every second. I KNEW I didn't want to do hospital nursing- ever. I even went on an interview on an ortho floor and almost ran out of there. Everyone clicks with something different. I think if I HAD to do med/surg in order to be a nurse, I would have quit my career. Thankfully, there are plenty of options. I work as a Public Health Nurse and I LOVE it. I get to do more teaching than anything else during the day. I know I am making a difference and I'm able to be the type of nurse I know works for me. Some days I wonder if I'm making a mistake but I come on allnurses and read the posts/stories and get panic attacks from the comfort of my own home. I know that the hospital arena is not for me. It's not for everyone. I know some nurses who LOVE med/surg. Thank goodness we all have different interests so we can care for different groups of people. I'd be interested in research or administration one day.

changeofpaceRN, what type of work do you do as a public health nurse? We went through it briefly in school, and it sounded interesting, but I never got a full grasp of what a typical day would include. Also, what kind of experience do you need to be a public health nurse?

I am also interested in maybe doing nursing research someday. I did some environmental research while in community nursing. I really enjoyed it.

Thanks for the info...and the thoughtful comment.

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MBARN- You sound just like me! I will be starting in Med/ Surg too and hope to go into Trauma as well and then politics!! Wow... we are on the same boat!!

GOOD LUCK TO YOU!! :up:

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Specializes in NICU Level III.

You most definitely do not!

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Specializes in chemical dependency detox/psych.

Like you, I don't have a huge desire to be a hospital nurse. I know I could do it if I had to, but really, why torture myself? I'm now working in a CDU, and LOVING IT--our unit is associated with a hospital, but not attached. I get to use my therapeutic communication techniques every day, along with injections, IVs, and lots of assessments. If I ever had to work in a hospital, I would do psych....NEVER med/surg. Blech.

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Specializes in Psych, med surg.

I knew I hated med-surg when I graduated last year, but I wasn't sure what area to go into. I got a med-surg position and, frankly, it was wretched. Awful. I hated it so much and cried almost every night. I stuck it out, did my year, learned a ton, and have just started in psych nursing. Still in orientation so I don't know exactly what it's like yet, but I can't be any more miserable than I was in med-surg.

My point is - if I had it to do over again, I would go right in to psych. If you know that you hate med-surg, please do not, I repeat do not, feel like you have to do it. You do not.

Hospital based nurses will give you grief about it. Plenty of my former co-workers made rude/snide/mean comments about psych nursing and my leaving the floor. But many of them also told me privately that they were jealous that I was leaving and that they wanted to leave, too.

You are just as much a "real" nurse as anyone else who is legally entitled to use the letters "RN" after their name. Please enjoy your new job, and good luck.

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