Let's Hear It for Med Surg!

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Specializes in Med-Surg/Oncology, Psych.

Hi all,

I'm still a new RN with less than a year of experience under my belt, all of which has been on a psych unit. Although psych has been a great experience, I know it's not my niche. I've been trying so hard to get that med surg experience that I feel is so fundamental and critical to a good nurse's knowledge base. A lot of people I speak with, however, have a lot of negative things to say about med surg and tend to lean towards specialties (OB, ICU, ED, OR, etc). I know that there is so much to learn from med surg and I don't have enough experience to understand why these folks seem to have negative opinions of med surg. I'd really love to get the perspective of you med surg nurses out there who love what you do. How long have you worked med surg? What makes you stay? Did you ever leave and come back? What are your most and least favorite aspects of your work? I know you're out there and I hope to hear from you! Thank you!

-Erin

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Does your facility have a float program? If so float around the hospital. You will be floated through the ER and through out all the med/surg floors and maybe an ICU to take care of some non-vented and non-drip dependent patients.

I know I'm just an LPN, but when I became a CNA, the first year I did this and I found out real quick what part I liked and what parts I disliked and fell in love with things I thought for sure I wouldn't be able to do (Trauma/Neuro Critical Care). Which I plan on going back to when I get my RN.

There's lots of experienced seasoned nurses you can ask questions to on these floors and you will get to know them, and there will be some you can't stand.

But if I was you I would check into a float program in your hospital. Most hospitals have them, go to your house supervisor for more information seeing that they look over the staff that floats and make decisions of what floors will have to pull staff to other floors.

Goodluck!

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I'm M/S and really love it. No two days are ever the same and you see such a wide variety of patients that you learn constantly. My hospital won't hire anyone into specialty units until they have 1 year of M/S under their belt.

I was thinking of going into OR nursing and might down the line, but I love what I do and work with a great team. Mnay of the nurses in our unit have been there for years now. Our management is awesome and out stafffing ratio is excellent. We are defended and have people looking out for us and many other units don't have that. We are very lucky.

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

i liked medical surgical nursing in school. i did not like working on a medical surgical floor after graduation. here is one post that lists some similar experience as to why we new grads hate med surg: https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/nursing-really-me-432346.html#post3923429

by the way, good luck finding a job in med surg. join us on the first year after nursing licensure forum soon for support and well wishes.:twocents: https://allnurses.com/first-year-after/

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Specializes in M/S, MICU, CVICU, SICU, ER, Trauma, NICU.

I worked Med/Surg for 2 years and really, really respect the ones who stay in it. My mother did it for 26 years and she LOVED IT.

I think med/surg nurses are AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Med/surge is a specialty... but it is very fast paced - time management is an issue; knowledge and experience of the whole spectrum of illnesses/surgeries is essential and being assigned more than one patient... usually five or more... requires a very physically and mentally active nurse. Excellent communication skills are crucial. I could go on and on and on... It's great!

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Ive been a med/surg RN for 30 years- I've branched out to tele, cardiac, oncology, endoscopy- which is been deamed the dream job in most nursing circles,but honestly after 9 months of colonoscopies I ran back to med/surg and didn't look back. Why I love med surg- I can't tell you- It's the hardest nursing speciality you will ever do, the patient load is the heaviest and in large numbers, you get looked down up and talked down to by all the other specialties and by most doctors too but after so many years and of seeing MICU and SICU nurses getting pulled to med/surg and having near nervous break downs with their assignments- I have to laugh to wet myself, but I give in and help them ( i don't want any breakdowns on my shift, I have no experience in psych) Med/surg prepares you for anything, yor patient load is any and all diagnosis- that is the challenge and the thrill, the putting to gether of all that information, the knowing how all thoses meds work, the knowing when to call the Doc, the time juggling, the knowing who is stable is who will crash. Give yourself a chance- at least a couple of years, you don't learn med/surg overnight. Med surg is heard and complicated, look at the requirements for a med/surg certification and compare there's to an ICU-CCRN, It take 3 fulltime hours to qualify to take the exam, some nurses I worked with were med/surg nurses for 7 years and then took the exam. I took my exam in 2006 and breezed through it, there were nurse practioners taking the exam with me and having a hard time. so med/surg is not an easy speciality. but with paractice it does get less daunting. Hang in there

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I work ICU now, but LOVED med/surg back in the day! What I loved most was getting an acute appy or lapchole, the pt feels horrible, you send them to the OR, and then the next day they're up and moving and feeling better already! It's very rewarding and you can really see the difference you make. Just my thoughts though!

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

I've been in med/surg for 8 1/2 years. Admittedly, I took it as that "starter" job....but I've never left. :) Hard to explain what I love about it, there are a lot of things....great team, wide range of patients, etc. I know that I wouldn't like a floor where the bulk of the patients were the same (renal, cardiac, etc). I DO feel our work can be harder than the medical floors (they don't focus on frequent ambulation, which is time consuming; they often don't do q4h VS or assessments, which is our rule rather than our exception). Sending someone to surgery, being integral in helping them get to the point of going home...I love it.

Anyone who says med/surg isn't a specialty can take that theory and........well. :)

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The thing about MedSurg nurses, we have SKILLS!

Last night, I had quite the variety - a trach/peg tube pt. who was nonverbal and a complete care, a pt on BiPap admitted with hypertensive crisis and neuro issues, a sickle cell-er with tons of pain meds, a s/p finger amputation with multip0le psych issues and a nice but stubborn LOL who never rang the bell before getting OOB...just think of all of the skills I used in an eight hour period! I'm not denying that ICU nurses have skills - Lord knows they do (and Praise God for RRT nurses especially)! I'm just saying that it's rare for an ICU nurse to require so many different kinds of skills in one shift! Oh yeah, I did it all without a tech, too - so I used that set of skills as well!

When I worked in the OR, I lost my skills completely, and...I missed it, so came back to the floor! Granted, my dream job is in the SICU, but I'll take MedSurg over "boring" stuff like doctors' offices or superspecialized floors like all joints or whatnot any day.

Naomi Grace RN

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

I've worked med-surg for 17 years....I recently took a desk job and I want to go back to the floor. I like the variety and challenge.

The worst thing about med-surg is the ratios. Too much to do and too little time and the demanding families. But there's nothing I'd rather do right now.

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Specializes in Medical/Surgical, L&D, Postpartum.

Med/Surg nurse here! With a whopping 1 year of experience! LOL I love med/surg because you get a variety of patients, you learn something new everyday, and like another poster said...we use a lot of our nursing SKILLS. I chose med/surg after graduating because I wanted to learn time-management...which is so IMPORTANT for a med/surg nurse. I learned that and a whole lot more! Med/surg is a specialty all on its own, and med/surg nurses work HARD! I plan on staying in med/surg for a while...my dream job would be on an oncology unit and I know a strong med/surg background will prepare me for that.

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