I've got one more year of nursing school, and currently am planning on working for two years in med/surg before deciding what to do next. I understand there are two camps -- the "old fashioned" folks who think what I'm planning is a "must" for most nurses -- especially those like me with no previous clinical background. Then there are those who think that's irrelevant, and you should just go directly into what interests you -- like critical care or labor and delivery, etc.
On the "pro" side, the general argument is that you get a wide array of medical conditions to work with when you do med/surg first, and you really learn the "fundamentals" of nursing. On the "con" side, I've heard people say if you really know what you want, why waste time doing something else.
you cant go wrong with med/surg.. you learn a great deal there and having that under your belt may help you get into other fields down later in your career...
Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.
Just my two cents...
I was like, one of only two or three people in my class who went into med/surge. The rest of them all went straight into ICU, OB, and ER. One girl went into pediatrics first but then ended up in OB just a very short time later.
I don't think going into med/surge right out of school is necessary, but I myself am thankful for my experience, especially because my main area of interest from the get-go was psych. I did three years of med/surge and am now finally in psych. They say that nurses like me lose their skills after being in psych for a while, but I would like to think that with my strong med/surge background, if I ever want to go back and work in a regular hospital, I'd have a good chance of getting hired. I may decide to stay in psych indefinately, or I may decide to find an administrative position, or I may go work in outpatient surgery!
So to summarize... I guess the only area that I WOULDN'T go straight into is psych. :) It's a WHOLE different type of nursing and psych nurses use virtually NO medical nursing skills. The critical thinking and strong assessment skills are still used, but not a lot of the hands-on stuff.
Sorry to go off topic, but why do people hate med/surg so much? I thought you have patients in there with low acurity?
jenni - you took the question right out of my mouth... what is the big bad thing about it? Why do people want ICU or L/D? Granted, i haven done very many rotations as i haven't had adult health. The only specialty type things I've done were l&d, Postpartum, newborn nursery, peds. Nursery was fun..but I wasn't that big on the rest. Peds you have to deal with parents AND kids. Postpartum seemed boring. L&D-doesn't jive with my natural birthing ideas. I think I might like surgery but I have terrible allergies and doubt i could stay sterile long enough to get through a surgery as my tissue and I are good friends lol
So thus far my biggest experience has been med surg and so far I like it. I intern on a telemetry med-surg floor. You see all kinds of diff chronic issues. Pt are overall in pretty good shape and I can talk to them. i guess i like the variety.
I think it would be very stressful having critical patients - maybe because I still am going through the "OMG I'm gonna be a nurse? For real? I will never be prepared enough!" phase! lol
But yea everyone acts like it's so sucky being on med-surg and like it's the bottom of the nursing totem-pole lol and I'm not sure why. We have nurses who interned on my floor and have been those over 6-7 yrs as RN's. We are well staffed with CNAs. Good staffing ratios most of the time. But i'm wondering if I'm gonna be missing out on the GREAT nursing if I stay in med-surg lol
I would tell any new grad that if she wants to do: L&D, Psych, OR, or anything other than ED or ICU, go for it right out of school, while the training you had was still fresh.
IF you want to do ED or ICU, I would strongly urge you to put in a year on med-surg. The experience and time management skills you will learn are priceless. It's NOT about old fogies thinking you have to put in the time, or going by the rules.
It's about the fact that you will have to learn so many specialized skills in such a fast paced environment; you won't be looked upon kindly for having to practice IV insertion when you need to be learning about SG or balloon pumps.
I cannot teach you half of what you need to know to do well in an ICU in 12 weeks. I can only show you the basics, and trust you will use them to make informed assesments.
If you come to me not knowing how to properly assess skin signs, not proficient in IV's/foleys/trachs/NG tubes, not knowing how to diagnose and treat CHF (and believe me, it took ME at least a year); how can you possibly succeed in ICU?
There has to be a certain level of comfort before you can take on truly complicated differential diagnoses.
I think I did not read Betty's post clearly. When I say med-surg, I was referring to Tele as well. In my hospital, the units are interchangeable. So, yes, go to a tele floor.
We are lucky to be in Nursing because there are so many different areas to specialize in. But if Med/Surg/Tele is not for me... does it make it a bad thing? Absolutely NOT. It makes it a good thing for the nurse who likes it. Job security. You say you haven't done your Adult health rotation? After you do then you can also make up your own mind as to which area you would like to concentrate in. For me it is not Med/Surg.
I love medical/surgical nursing. It is a very difficult job, not enough hours in any shift to do the job, patients and their families can be demanding, difficult, and deathly ill. But, when things click, and they do if you just keep your nose to the grindstone, a nurse can be rewarded with some really great outcomes. I may be too old fashioned, but I love doing a really good dressing after good wound care, checking skin to see if edema, rash, or bruising has increased, listening to bowel sounds, listening to lungs. Checking nailbeds, lips, tongue and eyelids. I guess, NO MATTER, how much so called higher level of care I am giving with machines, I love hands on, eye to eye, direct care.
irmaRN
35 Posts
you cant go wrong with med/surg.. you learn a great deal there and having that under your belt may help you get into other fields down later in your career...