Med Surg or Peds

aura_of_laura · Mar 16, 2010

Peds is harder. It takes the foundation of med/surg, and then builds upon it. Med/surg is kind of "basic nursing," where pediatrics is a specialization.

Music in My Heart · Mar 16, 2010

The only reason that peds was a little more challenging is because it opened up a whole new range of normal and that it keeps changing as they get older. For example, there's not just one normal range of VS, there are 5 (as I recall).

An infant is very different from a toddler who's different from a preschooler who's different from a school-age kid who's different from an adolescent. They all have different psychosocial needs, abilities to understand, and appropriate means of communication education.

Kind of like oncology is a very general term to describe myriad conditions, pediatrics actually covers a number of disparate groups of people.

Med-surg was also easier in that I found it helpful to use my own body and experiences as a mnemonic aid and to facilitate comprehension. For those folks without kids, they've got no frame of reference.

Hopeful2011 · Mar 16, 2010

I think even though I'm looking forward to Peds, I think it'll be more challenging then Med-Surg, not just because it's building on the Med-Surg information, but because I don't have kids, and there are alot of variations from the newborns to adolescents... I just hope I can enjoy it and learn at the same time.. because I think Peds is where I should be.

JTresorRN · Feb 29, 2020

PEDS was much harder. As stated in a previous post, PEDS have more normals! I left MED SURG I with an A and would sweat every time for my PEDs exam! Now I’m going into Med-surg 2 ...I think my hardest challenge will be 90 clinical hours in 5 weeks and 5 exams! Haha..but feel better than when I was heading into PEDS. I thought it was gonna be a fierce class and I was right! Passed with 85 but WOW! is an understatement!