Med Surg positivity?

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Specializes in med-surg.

Hello all,

New grad nurse here, I recently got hired to begin a med-surg residency program! I originally wanted to go for L&D or NICU, but I landed a med-surg position, which I am grateful for knowing how competitive it is in my area.

Whenever I come across a post about working in med-surg all I read about is how much people hate it and now I am worried about starting my new position.

Although I do plan on pursuing L&D or NICU after a year or two max, I would like to hear any POSITIVE things from nurses who started off, work in, or have worked in med-surg :)

And any advice for switching specialties in the future? Thanks!

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Specializes in CMSRN, hospice.

I guess I'm a little late to the thread, but in case you're still watching, I wanted to respond. I personally really Iove med-surg for the variety and those wonderful can't-believe-that-just-happened moments. You see a lot of different diagnoses, so it's hard to get bored, which I always worried about with something as specialized as L & D (not knocking it at ALL, just saying that for me, I like being a Jack of all trades rather than having one particular expertise). It's also a great foundation for when you do want to try something else. I feel like I could use my med-surg experience to move in any number of directions, from psych to palliative to community to critical care and more.

Additionally, it's fun to see your patients get better and be able to be discharged. On the flip side, it's gratifying to learn to recognize when your patient needs a higher level of care and to help facilitate that. Whether you're an adrenaline junkie or not, you'll have good days (and bad days too), on med-surg, but if things are crazy, I can remind myself that they'll calm down soon; it's the circle of hospital life.

I also really love my team. Every place is different, but I've worked on three med-surg units so far, and I've always found "my people" at each job. We help each other, and literally laugh and cry together through our craziest shifts.

I've been a nurse for about 7 years, and I've finally decided to get my CMSRN. Eventually I will probably move on from this, but right now I'm genuinely happy where I am. I hope this is encouraging, at least a little bit!

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Specializes in Rehabilitation.
On 6/18/2021 at 10:52 AM, NightNerd said:

I guess I'm a little late to the thread, but in case you're still watching, I wanted to respond. I personally really Iove med-surg for the variety and those wonderful can't-believe-that-just-happened moments. You see a lot of different diagnoses, so it's hard to get bored, which I always worried about with something as specialized as L & D (not knocking it at ALL, just saying that for me, I like being a Jack of all trades rather than having one particular expertise). It's also a great foundation for when you do want to try something else. I feel like I could use my med-surg experience to move in any number of directions, from psych to palliative to community to critical care and more.

Additionally, it's fun to see your patients get better and be able to be discharged. On the flip side, it's gratifying to learn to recognize when your patient needs a higher level of care and to help facilitate that. Whether you're an adrenaline junkie or not, you'll have good days (and bad days too), on med-surg, but if things are crazy, I can remind myself that they'll calm down soon; it's the circle of hospital life.

I also really love my team. Every place is different, but I've worked on three med-surg units so far, and I've always found "my people" at each job. We help each other, and literally laugh and cry together through our craziest shifts.

I've been a nurse for about 7 years, and I've finally decided to get my CMSRN. Eventually I will probably move on from this, but right now I'm genuinely happy where I am. I hope this is encouraging, at least a little bit!

I know I'm not OP, but thank you so much for writing this. I did acute rehab for two years and now I'm moving to complex med surg which is basically med surg + stepdown in my hospital, and I really appreciated your point of view!

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Hey you mine sending some cmsrn reviewer, planning to take it soon, thanks

 

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Specializes in Geriatircs/Rural Hospitals.

I have been working a busy med/surg and now telemetry unit for 3 years. I used to love it.  But recently they have added telemetry, but have not gotten too much education. 

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