Med or Surg???

[KayceeLeeRN, BSN, RN]

Hey all, I just interviewed for a position at a small community hospital. It's a surgical floor, mostly ortho...but the manager says they fill up with all kinds of other post op's, and sometimes medical patients.

I'm just wondering if this sounds like a good experience. I have 1 year experience on a med/surg floor, specializing in renal failure/transplant and a major teaching facility. Never really got surgical patients. He was telling me how if my ultimate goal was critical care, post op was the better route, as oppose to a medical floor. I'm just lost though, I have no idea where to go or what to do.

Basically what I want to know is... What is a post op floor like? and how is it different from medicine?

Can anyone with post op experience give me a clue? Thanks :)

[veronica butterfly, ADN, RN]

I work on med/surg at a smaller regional community hospital. We get lots of post-ops and lots of medical. It's great experience. Often our ortho surgery patients have lots of other chronic health problems so there is still a lot of learning that takes place. We also get a fair number of elderly frail patients who fall and have hip surgeries and the focus ends up being their CHF or diabetes... or they get pneumonia because they're too frail to be able to get up soon after surgery. Many of our patients are 'frequent flyers', they're in the hospital frequently for exacerbation of their primary problems over and over again. We also get a number of renal patients, either for acute renal failure from dehydration/flu/side effects of chemo, etc., or chronic renal failure and then have to have dialysis while they're in for a different condition.

I think it's good experience. Does this small hospital have an ICU also? Maybe you could "gravitate" over there after awhile... Good luck to you!

[Fiona59]

I work a designated surgical unit that on week ends gets dumped with medical patients if we have empty beds.

There is a big difference. Surgical patients are admitted pre and post op. The care needs are different. Surgical patients for the most part need monitoring and encouragement to ambulate. The majority will be up and doing for themselves with 48 hours. Education is big on surgical floors.

Medicine in hospital is a polite name for the dumping ground of chronically ill seniors who live in the community. When they are admitted to acute care they and their families have very unreal expectations for what we can do for them.

When they wind up on surgical floors problems arise because our priority is caring for post op patients. Patients from medicine floors want more care or need it because they are often waiting placement in LTC. They don't understand that a patient bleeding out , dehiscing or coding is more important than they are.