LVN starting in med surg for the first time!

kat7ap · Sep 12, 2010

First of all, congrats and that you are very brave for doing agency work with no prior med/surg experience! Are they going to give you any orientation or training? From my experience, agency nurses have to be experienced and be able to hit the floor independently. I understand that the LVN scope is more limited in CA, but in Texas we have a wider scope which includes any of the following on a med/surg unit: patient assessments and vitals, checking labs and diagnostic results, contacting MD, verifying orders, admission and discharge paperwork, pt/family education, all medications including IV PB, IV Push, IV fluids, TPN, hanging blood products, NG/G/J tubes, trachs, colostomies, monitoring/emptying drains, dressing changes, preparing pt for procedures, etc., inserting and d/c peripheral IVs, inserting and d/c foley caths, etc. Med/surg can be very busy!

allnurses Guide · Sep 12, 2010

Not knowing anything about your background other than what is included here I would not take an assignment like that unless you are able to find out exactly what you will be expected to do and and make sure the facility you are being sent to knows that you are a new grad. I've worked in private duty nursing and I've worked on med-surg. From my exerience the two are so far apart that I don't think the private duty job really counts as "experience".

I say this not to be a downer but so that you aren't thrown to the wolves because of a possible misunderstanding between the registry and the hospital that is hiring you to work in a med-surg unit with a full load of patients and no experience or orientation.

Hope you are able to get it worked out though! Best wishes!

CaliLVN3583 · Sep 12, 2010

Well Im going to try it out to see if I like it. Im a quick learner and I hope doing this will hopefully get me a better job in the future.

tothepointeLVN, LVN · Oct 19, 2010

My current agency which staffs me for hospice was wanting to send me to a acute care med/surg floor (that particular scheduler didn't know my background) and I promptly turned them down.

I too before I started hospice only had pediatric private duty. I would not in any way consider myself qualified to work on an acute floor and you should question anyone that would ask you. As an agency nurse you will be expected to hit the ground running and take the hardest patients.

One of my former classmates let a scheduler at an agency convince him that he would be ok and pick it up. It wasn't it was a disaster and ihe was a very capable nurse. Just didn't have the experience

erosa962 · Oct 22, 2010

Hi, I am an LVN with 6 months experience doing at home shift care with pediatric patients. I recently got hired by a registry and they are going to send me to a hospital med surg unit. Since Ive only worked at patients home, Im really nervous . What should I expect when I first get there? Do they expect me to know how to do everything since Im from a registry? What will my day be like? Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

I have just sent my resume to an agency and am hoping to start working for them. I too though, have not worked in the hospital only LTC. I am an LVN who is very nervous about taking on this task but desperately want the experience. CaliLVN3583, how has it been for you? Did you find you picked it up easy? Any information would be soo helpful as like I said I am extremely nervous. Thanks in advance.