New RN - Should I take an unappealing Med-Surg offer?

[Nurse Beth]

Dear Nurse Beth,

I am a recently-licensed RN looking for some career advice and guidance. This summer, after graduating nursing school, I have been working at an outdoor education summer camp as a camp nurse, which I love, but is soon coming to an end because the position is seasonal. I have a couple of options and choices to make as I move forward...

1) Accept an offer to work full time on a Med-Surg unit. This will be as a "New Nurse Residency" in a city I am unfamiliar with and don't know anyone in, but in a very supportive work environment. Also, I will get full time benefits (health insurance, tuition reimbursement, etc...)

2) Accept an offer to work part time in a local Wound Care Center, and also as per diem at the environmental education center I currently work at. This idea appeals to me because I won't have to move far away, both work environments are also very supportive, and I enjoyed Wound Care during nursing school. The cons are I wouldn't get any benefits until I go full-time, and I would be working more hours during the week.

I understand that generally, it is a good idea for all new nurses to get that "year of Med-Surg" under their belts, but the truth is, Med-Surg never appealed that much to me; I would more like to specialize in a specific area. The crux of my issue is that I am not sure Wound Care is a field I would want to stay in forever, and I'm concerned the skills I would acquire are not transferable, or nursing "marketable."

My bottom line question is: How possible is it to get out of Wound Care once I'm in it? Are those skills eventually transferable to other fields?

Thank you folks ahead of time for your time and attention!

---

Dear Sarah,

Congrats, Sarah RN! :)

Take the MedSurg New Grad Residency position. Please, please, before it's gone.

You can learn wound care at any time later, but you can only get a new grad residency opportunity now and for a few more short months. It's not about whether MedSurg is your ultimate specialty of choice, it's about a year of supportive training and transition to practice that will give you experience, credibility, and make you marketable.

Working part time and per diem as a new grad is a career death sentence. It is possible to find yourself painted into a corner with few options. You don't want to take that risk.

Good luck to you,

Nurse Beth

[cemisciagna1]

I'd take option #2 in a heartbeat, but guess I'm a granny grad. I'm in med surg and cannot find a clinic job opening...and your option #2 sounds exactly what I would like. I would like to work as a wound/ostomy nurse and that clinic sounds like a good path to start.

You are missing the point. It's about her marketability.

[Erocknurse]

First of all, congratulations!!!! I have been an RN for seventeen years and an LPN before that. I started in med-surg and it was the best decision I ever made. I later transferred to ICU and then the ER, which has been my current specialty for many years. I am very dismayed at the nurses on here stating that starting out in med surg is overrated. You see so many different things and learn a plethora of skills!!!!! You will have easy patients to the most complex ones! You will learn to spot when a patient is going down hill. Yes some places have wound care nurses, but from what I have seen, (and I have travelled extensively), those nurses come evaluate and give recommendations and the floor nurse still performs the care. Although clinic jobs are hard to come by and the med surg position may not be IDEALLY what you want NOW, in the long run, taking the m/s job may benefit you the best. I have precepted many new grads mostly in the specialty area I work in. They all ask me the same question you have posed and I tell them to please start out on a med surg unit so they can hone their skills and learn time management. I have seen many new grads fall on their face because they are overwhelmed from not having that base knowledge or skill set. Some have done fine but not many. Med surg provides the big picture. And who knows? You may decide that you like it! I wish you success and let us know what happens!

Elisa

[ivyleaf]

short answer: i would go with med/surg.

-residency will benefit you

- this is from someone who started out in psych and wishes she had started out in med surg. has made it harder to transfer from psych and get a job in the ED; not that it is/has been impossible

- if you were really excited about wound care i might say differently, but since not, and it is a narrow field, i think the med/surg residency would be your best bet. stick it out for a year. if you absolutely cannot stand it in 6 mo you can transfer to another unit. you will learn a lot and you might actually like it : )