ANCC Medical Surgical Certification Results

siggie13 · Jan 2, 2008

Thanks for the info and link. I guess I am really soured on taking this exam. It seems meaningless to me. Why say that you are "certified" in the area that is so basic and not specialized. This type of nursing has alot of "average" people and many who could not do well in any other areas. I find it ironic that there is a "certification" for it.

At my hospital, if you work the surgical floor, you have to really know your stuff since we deal with the simplest to the most complicated surgeries and I would not classify my staff as "average". The same applies to the medical floor nurses where it takes years before they feel comfortable dealing with their "heavy" patients. When my surgical floor is full and patients must be sent to other departments, the surgeons always want their patients sent back to the surgical floor where their care is more geared toward their particular surgery. I really don't know of any department in a hospital that I would consider the staff "average". In my book, all nurses are specialists in their fields. :nono:

suni, BSN, RN · Jan 4, 2008

Med Surg is a speciality and not one many people like due to the patient load and the turn around time for beds. Yes, you learn basic med surg in nursing school but I have found that a percentage of new grads learn it for the test and have no idea how to apply it in the clinical setting when the security blanket of an instructor is gone.

Remember also that in most facilities med surg beds occupy the highest percentage of in patients and therefore contribute to the financial status of the hospital by maintaining there census while other speciality units may carry a low census and generally speaking OB and ICU have smaller units.

Any certification by any nurse should be praised, this is something that most nurses have to pay for themselves and I know that there have been people who failed certification exams.

I personally believe that if you are a manager of a unit you should be certified in your speciality area and if it is a slam dunk as a previous poster stated then I hope that the manager they refered to is certified.

yumaRN1990 · Jan 4, 2008

I took the exam last May and passed, but did not get the results for a month. I would not say that it is a slam duck type of text. I can tell you that I will not let mine expire, becasue I definetly don't want to have to take it again. Very nerve wraking, but I am not the best test taker in the world.

military girl · Feb 16, 2008

I'm sorry, but I don't happen to agree with your assessment that med/surg has "average" people working in it and that it's an area for people who couldn't make it in any other specialty. I'm a military nurse and a med/surg nurse and I just spent a year taking care of patients in Iraq. So if that make me "average", thenyou need to think again

yumaRN1990 · Feb 16, 2008

I'm sorry, but I don't happen to agree with your assessment that med/surg has "average" people working in it and that it's an area for people who couldn't make it in any other specialty. I'm a military nurse and a med/surg nurse and I just spent a year taking care of patients in Iraq. So if that make me "average", they you need to think again

You Go Girl! I am proud of you and thank you for you do for our troops.

I am a med surg nurse and like you, I feel we are far from "average". Med surg nurses are thrown into different things everyday and we have to be up to date on new skills all the time. It is no longer someone just coming in for surgery, they usually have two or three other problems as well as their surgery. It is a fast paced floor and your on your feet a lot but it is worth it.

siggie13 · Feb 16, 2008

i'm sorry, but i don't happen to agree with your assessment that med/surg has "average" people working in it and that it's an area for people who couldn't make it in any other specialty. i'm a military nurse and a med/surg nurse and i just spent a year taking care of patients in iraq. so if that make me "average", thenyou need to think again

totally agree with you!!! i have been saying on this site how difficult med-surg nursing is and how it is indeed a specialty. we need to see all nurses as specialists in their fields and stop being snobs about icu, nicu, etc. all nurses are worthy of admiration. :bow: :bow:

rn/writer, RN · Mar 10, 2008

Thanks for the info and link. I guess I am really soured on taking this exam. It seems meaningless to me. Why say that you are "certified" in the area that is so basic and not specialized. This type of nursing has alot of "average" people and many who could not do well in any other areas. I find it ironic that there is a "certification" for it.

The bolded part seems to say that nurses who aren't smart enough for any other specialty end up in med/surg and that med/surg is so simple that granting certification is kind of silly.

Quite frankly, I think med/surg is a demanding and challenging specialty. Med/surg nurses don't just concentrate on a specific and expected set of diagnoses and meds as they do in cardiac or renal or neuro. They have to know it all. Hundreds of meds, dozens of diagnoses, lots of co-morbidities. And the acuity keeps increasing. Patients who would have been sent to an ICU ten years ago are now ending up in med/surg.

To imply that med/surg is the bottom rung of the ladder and is a specialty area not worth certifying is to demonstrate a gross underestimation of the skills, capabilities and wisdom these nurses possess. Untalented nurses don't generally last long in med/surg. It's just too tough a field.

The testing itself may be of questionable value, but med/surg nurses rock. :up:

medsirgrn · Jan 31, 2009

I think this is whats wrong with nurses,we are so quick to diminish what other nurses are doing .I have never heard a neuro surgeon calling a general surgeon basic or average. Med surg is the back bone of nursing and I think each one should respect each persons area of specialty.This may not be a difficult specialty to get certified in but if a person decides to take any certification in areas that they are employed in,that shows that they are trying to improve in that area and should be appreciated.One more thing,not because a nurse began in medsurg ,does not mean that is where they are going to remain for the rest of their career.

A1alpha · Mar 11, 2009

In fact, for example, nurses in ICU or oncology units who would float to med-surg units would be at a loss just because they have focused so much in so many years in a specialized area. This does not mean that they are idiots or stupid at all. Med-Surg is just not their forte/specialty and their concentration was at a specialized field. This goes vice versa.

e_robot · May 6, 2009

In regards to certs. If I get the ANCC cert is it ok to get the CMSRN cert as well? Is that advisable? I like to get every opporunity that I can and since i'm studying for one shouldnt i just get both does anyone know someone with both?

mimilinda77 · Jan 22, 2011

Can the medical surgical experience better prepare you for other areas of patient care? If so, then it is a specialty in it's own right. Should it be assumed that medical surgical nursing is, indeed, the backbone of clinical nursing science? I think so, but I love a good discussion board.

A good medical surgical nurse has developed the critical thinking skills that may help identify symptoms leading to conditions that may further compromise a patient's status. They are strong patient advocates. They are like "event planners" and the patient is the "event". A good medical surgical nurse can prevent complications from developing and prevent events that may lead to a patient being transferred to ICU. There is a reason why many facilities (not all) require medical surgical experience before entering specialty areas such as ICU's and OB. As a clinical instructor, versant program preceptor I can say that the majority of new graduates are not ready for high acuity level patients. In a busy ER it is very rare to find a preceptor willing to hold your hand while you drop your first NG tube on a real person...you are expected to have the assessment skills to allow you to recognize which patient needs to be seen by the doc asap simply by eyeballing them from across a room. I do stress however that this is not all inclusive. There are some people who may be ready for this, however they tend to have prior experience in healthcare in roles different than registered nurse. Medical surgical nursing, though busy and complex in its own way, allows you the time to see the whole picture.

For the record I am a nurse who is certified by ANCC in med-surg, but I now work in Mother/baby/pediatrics. On a daily basis I am asked by other nurses questions that would be considered more "med-surg" in nature. I paid for the exam out of my own pocket to reach a personal professional goal I set for myself. Certifications should not be obtained because they are difficult or because you get more money. They should be obtained for the satisfaction that you are elevating yourself to higher professional standards. By being certified you are showing your peers that you are committed to maintaining abreast to the latest evidence based practices in your area of specialty. The hope is to always encourage others to set higher professional standards. This helps nursing to further develop as a science.