Med/Surg Experience

[hoverton]

Hello all!

I am still in nursing school like most I'm already thinking about the future.

I ultimately want to go into adolescent psych or addiction nursing but I know that it is critical for me to get at least two years of experience on a med/surg floor before anything else. I am currently a nursing assistant on a med/surg unit (been there 2 years) and i know that it is ABSOLUTELY not the kind of nursing i want to be in. I was wondering if facilities consider children hospital med/surg and adult med/surg the same experience-wise.

Thanks!

Hannah

[hiddencatRN, BSN, RN]

It's not "critical" to get med surg experience first. Depending on where you look for jobs you might not have a lot of options for your first job, but there's no reason not to try to get in to the specialty you want from the start.

[queenjulie, RN]

Honestly, our local psych facility is so understaffed that they definitely don't require anything but an RN after your name to work there. I'm sure they prefer med/surg experience or other psych experience, but it's not mandatory. But it's not a great facility and it's in a poor area, so there are good reasons why they have a hard time finding people--your local psych place may be different. You might call them and ask! Maybe ask you talk to the charge nurse and tell her you're interested in working there after graduation, and how does she feel about new grads? HR people often have very different expectations than the actual floor staff.

[knitnurse72]

I finished school in December and began my first nursing job 3 weeks ago in long term care, a population I love. Prior to this I was a secretary on a med/surg floor and while I learned a lot, I also knew I did not want to be a med/surg nurse. Prior to finishing school, I learned 2 things from 2 excellent nurses: med/surg experience will expose you to a lot and you will get very good with your nursing "tasks," but it won't necessarily make you a great nurse all around. The other bit if wisdom was that for whatever nursing job you take, they will train you and you'll learn what you need to know.

[RNperdiem, RN]

Any nursing experience would be valuable.

As a new grad however, you might have to take what you can get before you can get what you want.

In the world of hospitals, there are fewer beds for children than adult med-surg beds. There will be fewer jobs available for peds nursing too.

[proud nurse, BSN, RN]

IMO it's doubtful they would consider peds med/surg the same as adult med/surg. They like to say children are not little adults.

But any experience in the nursing field is better than none. I've met lots of new grads who have no experience other than clinicals.