Med/Surg vs. Specialties for new nurses

GadgetRN71, ASN, RN · Sep 1, 2008

I think you have to know yourself. Are you a quick learner and are you adaptable? If yes, then you shouldn't have much trouble going from one specialty to another. I have known OR nurses that have gone from the OR to ER, the ICU, NICU etc.

That being said, very few nurses that work in the OR leave for other specialties. If you end up in a good OR, you won't want to leave. Just can't beat that one patient at a time thing, not having to work every other weekend and hoilday, and getting a meal break and a 15 minute break 98% of the time! :yeah:

I agree with your friend that says it may be easier to get a job anywhere in the country as an OR nurse, especially if you can scrub.

EvaLuna · Sep 1, 2008

Thank you so much for that insight. Having options is better than not having any but one can also get so bogged down by the decision making process that it becomes very frustrating. I'm really leaning towards O.R. we'll have to see how the internship goes. Thanks!

EvaLuna · Sep 1, 2008

I think you have to know yourself. Are you a quick learner and are you adaptable? If yes, then you shouldn't have much trouble going from one specialty to another. I have known OR nurses that have gone from the OR to ER, the ICU, NICU etc.
That being said, very few nurses that work in the OR leave for other specialties. If you end up in a good OR, you won't want to leave. Just can't beat that one patient at a time thing, not having to work every other weekend and hoilday, and getting a meal break and a 15 minute break 98% of the time!
I agree with your friend that says it may be easier to get a job anywhere in the country as an OR nurse, especially if you can scrub.

I think you bring up a valid point here witchyrn, I think it does have alot to do with personality. Prior to becoming an LVN I was a medical assistant in New York City and I worked for a "temping" agency. I did it all: cardiac, ob/gyn, peds, surgical, geriatrics, adult meds, etc. I learned so many skills from monitors to peds. phlebotomy that I eventually topped out at the max salary I could receive :smokin: . When I completed my LVN I found it very difficult to adjust to just one specialty. So much so that I became a travel nurse just to continue the variety in patients and settings so to speak. In that respect perhaps O.R. would be a better fit since you will rarely see the same patients again and there are a myriad of procedures that are done in a busy O.R. I wonder if I could possibly pick your brain about what a typical day as an O.R nurse might look like? What capacity do you work in? Scrub? Circulating? How do you become a scrub nurse? I know when I worked at Children's Hospital they were very much respected in the O.R.; Not that everyone else wasn't mind you but there seemed to be more of a deference...Any thoughts on that? Sorry for the long post...thanks again for your insight...it is greatly appreciated!

Ruby Vee, BSN · Sep 1, 2008

very nicely said.
i cannot agree with you more. i have been a nurse for 7 years and agree that if i didn't start in med surg i would not be the nurse i am today. you learn time management and prioritization as well. you can just look at someone you have been taking care of for days and suddenly say "something isn't right". also med surg is it's own specialty. i am really glad i did med surg before i went to the neuro icu. you will see such a wide variety of diagnosis as well. so you may want to consider starting in medsurg. don't say no until you give it a good try.

although it seems to be in vogue now for new grads to start out in icus, i still think it's a bad idea. there's the argument that you need to learn the basics first: now to assess a patient, how to talk to a doctor, how to slam in an iv, ng and foley while assessing the patient and getting a history . . . i know i'm in the minority but that idea still holds water.

the other factor is that starting in med/surg tends to give nurses a better background in nursing and makes them less likely to burn out early. new grads who start in icu are often crispy critters after as little as a year or two, while others who start in med/surg have far longer careers.

and i know i may get flamed for this, but my collegues who started in m/s or anywhere other than the icu seem to be better nurses than those who started in icu as new grads. they're more likely to work hard, get things done and have a can do attitude than those folks who started in icu and sit around complaining about how much work they have to do, how they're so much smarter than everyone else, and how little everyone else does while their iv drips run dry, their pumps are alarming, their ventilators are alarming and their patients are lying in stool de-lining themselves!