New Adventure in my nursing Career?

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Questions for those who works in medsurg. I am a nurse (LPN) of 14 years. I started in a nursing home as new nurse and worked that route for about 6-7 years, then I worked in urgent care, orthopedics (along working in Hospice while working in ortho) and the the last 5 years I worked in Family medicine. I am now about to take a new venture into med surg on third shift, 7p-7a. My question is, can you give me some advice on what to expect and what I should be looking out for when working in med surg. Am I doing the right thing in my nursing career as a LPN in going into med surg now? Is this a hard career choice to go into? I do not know anyone personally who works in med surg to ask.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

When I was an LPN, my career, money-wise, received a major jumpstart once I got that med-surg experience. I'm not gonna lie to you; med-surg can be a freaking nightmare and one of the greatest sources of stress as the madness begins to make sense. But once you make it through the white water rapids, the sailing will be smoother and the experience packs a punch on your resume, especially if you give it the time you've given your other positions. Who knows? This may push you into higher education.?

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ponderingDNP said:

When I was an LPN, my career, money-wise, received a major jumpstart once I got that med-surg experience. I'm not gonna lie to you; med-surg can be a freaking nightmare and one of the greatest sources of stress as the madness begins to make sense. But once you make it through the white water rapids, the sailing will be smoother and the experience packs a punch on your resume, especially if you give it the time you've given your other positions. Who knows? This may push you into higher education.?

Thank you for your honest response. I am an older nurse and I was just trying to see am I making the right career move. I have no hospital experience at all. I always wanted to do med surg but could not ever get a position. So I went on with other ventures. It will be all new to me and trying to grasp a whole new aspect of nursing. I have to get accumulated into learning new ways of nursing and bringing back things that I have totally forgot and have not used in previous positions. It is going to a long road but I am going to make the best of it. I am not going to lie, I am terrified.  

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Specializes in New Critical care NP, Critical care, Med-surg, LTC.

It will be challenging for sure, but you probably have some pretty solid skills from your years of nursing so far. I think night shift is a better one to start on, hopefully at least 1-2 of your patients will sleep through the night or need minimal intervention. It's hard to recommend what to study ahead of time not knowing the make up of your particular floor. You'll be giving lots of pain medications, so know your hospital policy on appropriately assessing and charting pain medications. You'll figure things out, I enjoyed my time on med-surg, hope it's a great career path for you. Good luck!

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Specializes in Oncology, ID, Hepatology, Occy Health.
NurseLash said:

 I am an older nurse 

I came back to hospital nursing (oncology) after several years out doing other things. Age was not an issue. I'm 60 now and doing OK. Don't regret my choice after 14 years. Consider it a lovely way to finish off my career. Your life experience and maturity will give you an edge over newbies.

Good luck.

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