Med surg nursing

suzanne4, RN · May 15, 2005

Go to the unit where you would like to work...I definitely agree with that instructor on this one............. :)

NurseKate · May 15, 2005

**WARNING: Long-winded post**

I started on a surgical/truma unit right out of school when I moved to NC. Like you, when I was preparing to graduate I heard "You need at least a year of experience on med-surg before specializing." BUT...I also heard, "If you know what you want to do, then go for it." I decided to take the latter (although I was most interested in women's health) and went for a specialty area. I had three months of orientation before being set out on my own on the SIU. I learned A LOT, but realized that unit wasn't the right fit for me (or me the right fit for it) after about 4 months. I ended up quitting, moving back to MA, and now work on a med-surg floor in a smaller hospital. I love it. I have taken my SIU experience and use a lot of it here on med-surg (although we don't get people on vents, drips, etc here). However, my med-surg experience has broadened my knowledge base and I will be able to take all of this knowledge with me to where ever I may go from here. You WILL ALWAYS BE LEARNING SOMETHING each day in your career.

You just have to do what you feel is right for you. The great thing about nursing is if you feel you're in the wrong area, you can switch. Most specialty areas now have extensive orientation/preceptorship programs for new grads. Check them out and find out which place seems like the best fit. If it's a med-surg floor...GREAT! If it's the ICU, CCU, pedes, or whatever...GREAT! You really won't know until you try. Just do a lot of research, ask a lot of questions before you accept a job, and make the decision you are most comfortable with. :)

Best of luck to you and congratulations!! :balloons:

P.S. AND...there's nothing wrong with switching units during your first year out of shcool. Don't destroy yourself by "toughing it out" if you are absolutely sure that it's not the right fit for you.

-Kate

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · May 16, 2005

Med/Surg is probably the greatest proving ground there is for a nurse, and in theory, everyone 'should' work there a year or two before going on to another specialty. That said.......I think that it's up to each individual to decide that for her/himself. There is no doubt that M/S is a hard, tiring, dirty, physically demanding job, and at the ratios with which most units are staff, it can also be flat-out dangerous.......too many really sick patients with too many complex problems and too little time to care for them properly. In fact, every day I work M/S myself, I feel my license is at risk, if only because my brain can handle just so many zillion facts and figures at a time and there's always more to be crammed in.

Some days, I feel like all the TPTB want are nurses with strong backs, no personal needs whatsoever, and an unlimited capacity for work. But M/S has its rewards, too; there's the pride you feel when a patient who's had a bad time of it is finally well enough to go home, and you know you helped contribute to that. There's the bittersweet affection you feel when the confused, lonely, elderly patient who's been crawling out of bed all night suddenly grasps your hand as though it were a lifeline and says to you, "Nurse, I'm sorry I made you work so hard". And there's the honor of being at the bedside as someone who has lived a long, productive life quits this old earth and sails away on angels' wings, free at last of all pain and suffering.

M/S is definitely not for everyone, and my opinions on the subject have changed some over the years I've practiced this type of nursing........now I would NEVER recommend to anyone who didn't like M/S in school (or who knows, deep down, that they wouldn't enjoy it) that they should start out there. To them I say, go with what your heart says is the best kind of nursing for you........that's the kind you will be good at, and in turn it will be good to you. :)

Tweety, BSN, RN · May 16, 2005

There's the opinion of your insturctor and there's the opinion that med-surg is the way to go. Both have truth.

If you didn't like med-surg then, there's no need to torture yourself if and only if there's a specialty area that offers a good orientation and preceptorship. Otherwise you'd be merely frustrating yourself counting down the six months until you can leave.

Good luck to you Tony!

RNAnna · May 16, 2005

I work in a small rural hospital in M/S. I am a new grad and I have to admit that I am having a difficult time.....at least some days. There are good days too. When I was looking for a position, it was the facility itself that effected my decision. What drew me to my current job was the fact that everyone is treated with respect, kindness, and we all work as a team. When one is busy, we are all busy helping each other.

When we were in clinicals, I had a rotation in the local hospital. What I saw there was a lot of griping and a bit of backstabing. It is a place where I know that the nurses "eat their young". It was a good experience because I now know where I don't want to work. No one there helped with anyone elses pts. If there was a call light on and it wasn't your assignment, so be it. So now I commute to work in a facility where on my first day I was welcomed with open arms. Yes, the work is demanding. Yes there are days that I feel like I don't want to come back. And yes, there are the days that when I go home from work I know that I have made the difference in the life of many people. It is a good feeling. It is a feeling that I wouldn't give up for the world.

Will I stay in M/S? I doubt it. But I do know that I will stay in M/S for a year or two until I know what the next step is. It is a good place to gain and master many different skills. These are skills that I will be able to use for the rest of my career.

Anna

LilRedRN1973 · May 21, 2005

I've been an Apprentice Nurse for almost a year in the ICU and that's where I will be starting June 6th. I enjoy the structured environment of the ICU, the Q 2h assessments and charting that has to be done, etc. over what I thought the chaos of Med-Surg was. The nurses had at LEAST 5 patients, but on most days, it was more like 7 and the occasional 8. I also felt like a waitress for half the day....something I have done for the 10 years prior to nursing school and don't plan on going back to.

I really LOVE my job in the ICU, I love my coworkers, I love my supervisors, etc. There is nothing I don't like about it. I also love that I will be working nights. More time to really get my charting down pat, being able to look up my patient's condition, read through their chart, spend time doing bed baths, etc. Also, since we are a trauma unit, a lot of shooting/stabbing victims and people who have been in car accidents come in at night. I have been working nights and am glad I will be staying there. They give you the option of floating to days after 2 months, then floating back to nights after 2 months on days. I will choose to stay on nights.

Go with there you think you will be happy. If you didn't enjoy med-surg during clinicals, you may not enjoy working there as an RN. Don't go to an area that you don't feel is the right "fit" for you, especially as a new grad. It will be hard enough to get your bearings without having to worry about not liking where you work! = )

Melanie

heysmalls · Feb 25, 2006

I am currently working on the M/S floor. Yes it can be very chaotic at times. I have worked here for 5 yrs. and have been out of school for 5 years. I really do like it. Time management is a big thing. My patient ratio on a normal day is 8:1. Even though it has been very hectic at times, I have learned a lot. If I had to redo it, I probably would have the same thing again. I have also had to work in CCU one night. It was different of course, but I think I would enjoy working down there also. Really, it is all in what that individual wants to do. You can learn alot no matter where you go as long as you are willing to learn. Things will all work out in the end.

thodge · Mar 24, 2006

I like med-surg, I am a new graduate and have been working as charge for about 6 months. I don't have a nursing background and I was wondering if you have any suggestions on how to run a floor effectively.? The nurses usually has a ratio of 8:1, and we worked most of the time without an aide. Most of the time I am so busy helping the nurses on the floor that I am not prepared to give report to the shift ahead, and do not have the time to verify assessments!

NephroBSN, BSN, RN · Mar 24, 2006

I'm hoping some experienced med surg nurses will respond to this. I've repeatedly read on these boards that med surg is the way to go for new grads for at least a year or two before you move into a specialty area. My last clinical instructor told our group that this is foolishness, and that we should apply to hospitals that offer extended preceptorship into a specialty area if we feel pretty certain that that's where we want to be. She said that although you get to see a little of everything on a med surg floor, in her experience the workload and pt ratios on med surg units tend to be more overwhelming than everywhere else and, in her opinion, this isn't the best learning environment for a new grad who's trying to get his/her feet wet. She feels that med-surg nursing isn't necessarily 'beginners turf' as so many people suggest, but that it is its own specialty area and that it can be extremely demanding, especially when it comes to time management. She also said that hospital recruiters who claim a 5:1 med surg ratio are lying, because the ratio is usually 6:1 or higher.
I worked for 6 months in a hospital, first as a tech then as an RN Intern in the ICU. I was sometimes floated to tele and med-surg and I confess I really hated working on the med-surg unit. They told me it would be great experience for me, but it was pretty awful. There were never enough nurses or aides to handle all the patients, and they seemed to always be asking already overburdened nurses to "take one more". Because I was working as an intern, my job was to assist 'as needed' giving priority to the most urgent patient needs as determined by the RNs. Of course, all the nurses would say their pts had urgent needs and they would always be paging me non-stop to come help them do stuff. I hardly had time to go to the bathroom, and even if I took a 15 minute break to eat a quick meal, they were paging me then, too. It was insane! I used to go home at the end of the day feeling like I'd been run over by a bus.
I was thinking of biting the bullet and doing straight med surg for at least 6 months as a new grad, but the experiences I had in the hospital made me realize that med surg is definitely not for me. The ICU and tele units were constantly busy, too, but it was a different kind of busy and definitely nothing like med surg.
Your opinions please...

Well at the risk of doing something that I said I would never do I'm gonna quote my dad.

"Most people don't wanna work hard. Don't be one of them"

I see nursing students often..Many of them are sharp interested and willing to get their hands dirty but too many of them aren't

Every day their instructors should say "Nursing is hard work if you aren't up to the task maybe you should do something else"

I never thought I would say that the younger generation is "lazy" I hated it when my dad said it but unfortunately I think he is right.

Generation X is an intaneous generation having been raised on fast cars, jet planes, fast food etc. They haven't had to walk anywhere, take the slow train, or cook. They don't know hard work.

Sorry I'm getting down while I still have legs to stand on..

I'm not saying every nurse be she/he young or old is lazy but too many are.

Try M/S you might like it. I don't think it will kill you.

ortess1971 · May 9, 2006

Um, I'm generation X and I do know hard work..I worked full-time while in nursing school and took call on weekends. It could be said about the older generation that perhaps they didn't question authority enough and that is why hospitals got away with treating nurses like garbage for so long....Many med-surg units are understaffed not because there are not enough nurses, but because the nurse manager and administration are trying to cut costs. At one of the hospitals I worked for, the nurse manager got a nice fat bonus check at the end of the year for keeping staffing levels down. No, med-surg probably won't "kill" anyone, but if the person is not interested in that area why work there? It is their career and their life. Take advantage of the fact that hospitals are willing to take new grads into specialties. I have found that many of the older nurses and instructors are bitter about the fact that we no longer have to suffer an area we hate.Also,many of us fledgling nurses are not putting up with the "hazing" that used to pass for orientation..Change is a positive thing!

NephroBSN, BSN, RN · May 9, 2006

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