I had no idea... med/surg vent

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I am a new med/surg nurse and just wanted to say I hate it. It's been 4 months so far and I have never been more stressed out in my life. I applied for everything BUT med/surg (at first) because I had a feeling that this wouldn't be for me, but as everyone knows, jobs are slim pickings for new grads. My primary complaint is that this is an environment in which you are expected to lie incessantly. Late med administration? Lie or be written up. Couldn't make the pain reassessment in time? Lie or be written up. Stuck with a pt who is tanking for 3 hours until the transfer to ICU? Lie for the rest of them or be written up. Almost every night at the end of my shift, I spend between 2 extra hours charting my lies because there is no time for charting during the shift. Even the experienced nurses are having to stay late with me. And this floor is so busy, it's not uncommon to turn over almost your entire team of patients in one shift. It's insane.

As my mom said: "It's text books vs. real world thing."

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Sorry to hear about your rough situation. I still don't quite understand the lying part? Wouldn't you rather be written up for administering a med late then for the patient to be harmed by receiving an overdose of the med/ have the patient's levels become untheraputic? Also why are you getting written up for a med given late? What constitutes late? All your patients will have meds scheduled for a particular time eg 0800; doesn't mean everyone's getting them at 0800 on the dot because that's physically impossible.. Being a grad is really hard especially in med-surg but lying on a legal document is only going to come back to bite you.

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APR you must be an exceptional nurse because we are so busy that I know that few if any run into a room 30min-1hr after a pain med to ask "what is your pain score now". On a busy Med/Surg floor it just seldom works out like that. It is not lying in my opinion and many others I am sure. These pain scores are audited and only for compliance of the law. It all has to "look good". I am running my *** off at my job and when I see my patient who received a pain med earlier, walking and talking I know that they are feeling better because they were cringing in bed an hour earlier so...........their pain has gone from their 8 to 3. When I have someone with chest pain, someone with a blood pressure problem, etc. you can believe I am not going to look at the clock and go see how the pain score is for my charting. I would be doing that all night long and get little done.

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Specializes in M/S, ICU, ICP.

I think med/surg is wild where ever you work at and it is either in your blood and you love it or you don't. It gives you a world of experience that you can't get anywhere else though so get everything out of your time there that you can.

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So here we are a month later... and I have to say that I am finally beginning to enjoy my job. One day I left thinking, "Where else can I get a genuine "thank you" from three people and two proposals, all in one day??" It is still very challenging, but I don't dread going to work anymore, LOL. I am improving with my time management and most of my skills; I don't have to get backup for every procedure anymore. I am definitely not always johnny on the spot with my rounds and pain reassessments but I do actually make sure I complete all my dressing changes and five rights of med administration, etc. Even the little things are hard when you're new; like all the little rules our phlebotomy department has. Or learning to encourage patients to track their questions for morning rounds instead of paging the evening on-call (who knows less than you). Thank you everyone for the encouragement!

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Specializes in Certified Med/Surg tele, and other stuff.

Glad to hear it has gotten better for you.

Now...I know I will get flamed, but whatever...I get so tired of people saying that Med/Surg is a horrible place to work and only building block to other depts. Somebody posted above that said all med/surg nurses have bad attitudes, or something of that nature.

NEWSFLASH!...med/surg doesn't have to be a craphole. It doesn't have to be full of nasty med/surg nurses that only think of themselves and don't know what the word teamwork means.

I worked a facility like that for 16 yrs and left a burned out mess. I thought all hospitals were as bad at that one. Guess what? They aren't! If you have to lie on your charting, have bad mannered co workers then it's your facility aka as managements fault, NOT the specialty. And yes Med/Surg IS a specialty. I work in a facility that is wonderful. Great teamwork, decent staffing and management that listens. It makes all the world of difference on a busy day.

Ok..I'm feeling better. Off my soapbox now.

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YEP! We beez liars!

The system makes us lie.. therefore .. it is a white lie!

I have 30 years under my belt .. I lie every shift .. over and over again.

Just click on the NECESSARY boxes.. to fulfill the extraordinary demands of administration and keep your job.

As long as you are prioritizing and taking care of the patient.. those boxes mean b.s.

I am concerned about " Stuck with a pt who is tanking for 3 hours until the transfer to ICU?"

Are you in a facility without a rapid response team?

If so... when a patient is unstable and you cannot leave the bedside .. you MUST notify your charge nurse and have your other patients taken care of when you are in that situation.

If charge won't/can't call supervision.

You cannot do both safely.

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Specializes in ICU, ER, EP,.

i've got to add my worthless two cents in. with 17 years of icu nursing, i'm now traveling and yes that means out to ... "duh, da, don"... med surg. i cringed, kicked myself for leaving a cake job in the ep lab and decided to suck it up, put on my big girl panties and go with a positive attitude.

i'm actually liking it!.. the staff is wonderful, and that makes a huge difference. but, but 17 years in, i had no idea how to manage 5 patients... all my meds were late, my charting done sporadically and poorly at first and simply finding a personal "flow" to the process took several float days.

i see it as a new challenge to multi-task differently, and a new skill to learn. med surge is an art of flexibility, juggling, organization and being able to see that team members may need my help more, no matter how behind i am... prioritization for the floor as a whole.

it is great to hear you are adapting. my long story, not so short is that after 17 years of nursing, i'm learning new tricks of the trade from these experts and it makes me a better nurse. don't ever discount med surge. it is a true skill to master!

good luck to you and your career. and, never be afraid of new challenges!

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To the original poster: Congrats and I'm glad you are more comfortable. Thank you for sharing your story, it helps give me hope! I am a new grad in a medsurg unit and I feel like every shift is awful. I agree that management can make a huge difference. On my unit they like to keep everyone nervous all the time we get a ton of e-mails and signs around the unit with reminders that there will be strict disciplinary actions for not answering call lights, bad customer service. Recently a CNA that worked there for 2 years with good attendance was fired because she didn't realize she was scheduled one day and had to be called then came in an hour after the shift started. I thought maybe there was more going on I don't know about but everyone was outraged and didn't think she deserved it. It is a stressful place to be 5 days a week.

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