New grad question about med/surg and cardiac floor

[mrdoc2005]

I am finishing school this semester and trying to figure out what I want to do. I know I want to focus on cardiac. Most people (family, friends, and teachers) are telling me to do med/surg for a year to increase skill level. My question is, do you think I could do that while working on a cardiac floor. I do not mean CCU or ICU just a cardiac floor.

To me it looks like I would be doing a lot of everything on a cardiac floor and that would give me the experiance I am looking for while allowing me to focus on cardiac.

Thanks for you comments.

[begalli]

If you want to do cardiac, do cardiac. This is a frequently asked question here and the answers will be split 50/50.

I went right into CTICU from nursing school because that's what I wanted to do, and knew it. I have no intention whatsoever of working med/surg, ever.

[PJMommy]

I agree with begalli. Go directly into cardiac if that's what you want to do. I went directly into critical care and also have no intention of working med/surg ever. People are different -- some love and excel at the skills required for med/surg and some love and excel at the skills for whatever speciality they are interested in.

[begalli]

Also mrdoc2005, see this thread.

[Nesher, BSN, RN]

While I am all in favor of doing what you want to do - I also am well aware of the immense value of my med- surg background. The first unit I worked on had gyn-occ, rad-onc, urology and 4 medical services. Now I am in stem cell transplant land and I work with tons of nurses who came to us straight out of school. I hear from them often how they don't know how to do something, or haven't seen this or that and they bemoan the fact that they don't have that type of background.

That said is it possible to work on a unit that is a combination of cardiac and other services so you can gain expertise in other areas? It helps a great deal with confidence to not be just a one trick pony.

[zambezi, BSN, RN]

I think that if you want to work with cardiac patients, you should. A general tele floor will give you the variety that you desire just with a little more cardiac...our tele floor has all kinds of patients: step-down cardiac surgery, MIs, GI bleeds, s/p trauma, step-down ICU patients, pneumonias, etc...OUr step down floor RNs usually take 4-7 patients...Learning how to intrepret rhythms will be a valuable skill in any area that you choose down the road...In today's nursing world, you can go anywhere that you want to...

[bobnurse]

cardiac is the way to go...........

[SharkLPN]

Go with what you want to do, but a year or so of med/surg, especially if your unit is a tele floor, will help tremendously. Whenever I float to a straight cardiac, surgical or oncology unit, the floor staff will freak out over a simple pneumonia or CVA pt who gets admitted there as overflow. "I don't know what to do! I don't know how to care for them!". I'm usually in their shoes at the beginning of the shift! "What IS this diagnosis?" :chuckle

And yes, you will have cardiac patients on a gen/med floor. My co-workers who have moved into ICU are appalled at new grads going straight into it - quite a few believe that since they began life in ICU, they know everything about nursing. They frequently don't.

[stn2003, RN]

I say go for the cardiac : ) there is such a co-morbidity that exists between heart problems and all sorts of other diseases that you will likely encounter everything that you will find on a med-surg floor on the cardiac floor with the added issue that they all have cardiac problems as well. i work on a cardiac floor and we get ortho patients, onc patients, psych pts. etc. bc they all have some past or current problem that makes them candidates for tele.

[angelique777]

I say go for the cardiac : ) there is such a co-morbidity that exists between heart problems and all sorts of other diseases that you will likely encounter everything that you will find on a med-surg floor on the cardiac floor with the added issue that they all have cardiac problems as well. i work on a cardiac floor and we get ortho patients, onc patients, psych pts. etc. bc they all have some past or current problem that makes them candidates for tele.

I went striaght to what I wanted to do and I am happy even though it is a little scary when your new. I am still on orientation. However I did a few internships during school. I worked on a Vent unit which had majority of there patients on telemetry and learned a lot there. I also worked on an oncology unit and was preceptor there as well. In addition my preceptorship was on a high acuity med surg floor. My preceptor was great and I gave out most of the meds for the 8 patients and did most of the care for the patients. So I gained a lot of experience on that unit as well. Therefore it would be helpful to do as many internships as you can while in school and gain some experience that way it is very helpful.

Good Luck with what ever you decide to do

Best wishes Angela