Med Surg Advice

LCinTraining · Aug 9, 2012

I'm not there yet, and I may change my mind entirely then, but I liken this to pregnancy. Everyone wants to share their horror story to scare the $#!^ out of you. To make you think like it's the toughest thing out there because it makes them feel superior to tell you how hard it was when they made it through. Sure it's going to be hard, but just like labor, humans have been doing this and succeeding for a while now. Just set your mind to it and you can do this.

jnelson188 · Aug 9, 2012

Med-surg was more difficult than the fundamentals of nursing clinical was but it is very doable... Each clinical semester builds on one another so the times when people horribly fail it's due to not retaining info and skills from previous semesters and trying to include new things without understanding the basics! I'm sure you will do fine just stay positive and work hard! Good luck.

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leinasmom · Aug 9, 2012

Med Surg is the foundation to all other nursing..In this you get to learn about the body's systems and how one works with the other. You lean a majority of your skills, cath insertion, injections, chest tubes, NG , and the list goes on depending on your program. I had the most fun here, but my passion is L&D or Oncology. Good luck and you can do it..

FitMommyRN · Aug 9, 2012

Med-surg was waaaaaaaaaay way way WAAAAY WAY more interesting than fundamentals. Therefore, it was also kind of fun. It's like problem solving: you have some labs, some symptoms, or particular pain or any number of things so WHAT'S wrong with them? What tests can you expect the doc to order? What do you need to watch for? What kinds of labs values can you expect? What can you do, as a nurse, without orders, to assist the patient or help them?

If you did the work in A&P, med-surg can be really fun. Basically, you've learned how everything works, now you learn how everything can go horribly wrong, WHY it goes wrong, and how one wrong thing can lead to another and on and on.

In clinical I started IVs, dc'd foleys (didn't get the chance to insert one), passed all meds, did all assessments, dressing changes, patient education, charted, shadowed, etc etc. And it. was. AWESOME.

Don't sweat it. Just give it a couple weeks of panic, if you must, then you'll see that it's not that bad and way more fun.

alex1987 · Aug 9, 2012

For Med Surg there are 2 things that you need to do:

1- Memorize important things such as lab values and most common use and side effects of medications used to treat the disease.

2- Make sure you understand (but don't lose time memorizing) the pathophysiology of the disease, the risk factors, the complications, diagnostic tests, etc... but especially: know the things that you as a nurse need to do for the patient (interventions) and know how to prioritize and use the nursing process when caring for a pt with a certain disease.

What I like to do is:

I download the keypoints from the book's internet free resource or the CD that comes with it. Those are really useful because it is a summary of the chapter. But make sure you read them and add stuff from the textbook before you print them because sometimes they're incomplete. I usually add to them all the stuff I know I need to know for the test, print them, and use them to study so I don't have to use and read the book anymore.

After I memorize what needs to be memorized and feel confident enough with my understanding of the topic then I start practicing NCLEX questions. This is something that you MUST do because you're going to be tested for your ability to think critically and doing a lot of NCLEX questions is what is going to help you to learn to think that way.

I always do the questions at the end of the chapters, questions from my book's study guide, quizzes from the book's resources, I use the Success series books (such as Med Surg Success), and questions from Kaplan. I'm sure that you can find a lot more of resources out there.

Finally, I review the Power points the night before the test just to review the material for the last time.

So far I've been doing great in my Med Surg I class. I have my final on Monday and am expected to get a high B in the class, maybe an A. A lot of my classmates are getting Cs and some are failing because they're either just using the power points to study a couple of days before the test or they are not practicing NCLEX questions as they should be.

Remember that you need to study every day or almost every day for at least a couple of hours. And by studying I don't mean that you need to be memorizing stuff but you could be reading the keypoints, adding stuff to them, typing your notes, making flashcards, whatever you want.. but as long as you do something every day and don't wait until the day before the test to study you should do just fine in the class.

I hope you find what works best for you and get good grades in your tests :)

chyna016 · Aug 10, 2012

I just finished med surg, and I really enjoyed it. You get to take all of the theory you have been learning and actually apply it. Just remeber you can learn from everyone on your unit during clinicals.

Our testing was very critical thinking heavy, so I would recomend getting a good NCLEX book. I also got "Med Surg Success" which I found really helpful becuse it had rationals for both right and wrong answers.

QuarterLife88, MSN, RN, NP · Aug 10, 2012

My school has 3 major med surg courses. Med-surg 1 (which is more general), 2 (ortho/neuro), and 3 (cardiac). Last year I was told that Med-surg 1 was the weeder class and super hard, and that the final was a killer. It really wasn't. In the end, by listening to everyone else, I really gave myself unnecessary anxiety. The final was no different from the rest of the tests, just longer. I walked out with a B+. Not bad for "the hardest course of the first year." OB turned out to be the silent killer. Go figure.

My advice: Ignore the gossip. Do your best and treat it like any other course. If you got into the program you obviously have intelligence so trust in that.

athomas2340 · Aug 10, 2012

Wow this information has really been helpful. I've been trying to get a strong foundation in fluid and electrolytes. I'm going to get a Saunders nclex book as well as supplementals for med surg. Thank you all sooo much!!!!

BloomNurseRN, ASN, BSN, RN · Aug 13, 2012

Definitely try to read a little bit ahead, before class, whenever possible. Concentrate on the areas the instructor emphasizing and study NCLEX style questions relating to the material you are focusing on.

Good luck!