Newsflash: Med/Surg RN's have the toughest job

Specialties Med-Surg

Published

I'm an "old" RN. Not old in age years, but old in work years as I started young.

Recently I was displaced out of my specialty due to a layoff, and find myself back on the floor in a medical/oncology role.

I'm not sure I will survive! My work focus for many years has been... well, focused on a specific set of clinical interventions relative to my role, and I was damn good at it.

Even ICU was easier than this. Heck, ER was easier than this.

The coordinating of ever-expanding multidisciplinary teams, specialists, hospitalists, technology, the push to get the patient out the door from the moment they're admitted, and the complexity of today's med/surg patients is astounding.

What blows my mind is how the process of delivering the actual care has changed. What once were routine tasks, are encumbered and bogged down by a system of dictatorial, connect-the-dot technologies and computer processes. What used to take one minute to do, now takes five even though the procedure or intervention itself remains the same or nearly the same as it did twelve years ago.

And somewhere in this mess, there's an actual patient.

God bless Med/Surg RN's.

Seriously.

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I remember thinking this very thought back in the 1990's when I was doing med/surg/onc. We were given no pats on the back for busting our bunns. I remember ICU got all the glory and the doctors undying approval, yet when one of the ICU nurses would be pulled down to help us out- put on the med cart, that nurse would go screaming off the floor. It's good to finally see it in print after all these years- the ability to juggle so many patients with so many different diagnosis on one team assignment is no easy task. Med/surg nurses had/have to know everything about every disease know to mankind- not to mention all the meds, expected labs, diagnotic tests, preps, and proceedures that went along with those diseases. If I ever went back to acute care- it would be to med/sug because of the variety and challenge. I was bored out of my mind in the endoscopy and the ICU. maybe to be a med/surg nurse one has to have a touch of ADHD- I loved the running around, the putting the peices together.

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Specializes in retired LTC.

To OP -Not to disagree with you but a lot of other specialty nurses would argue with you. However, I will concede a tie with med/surg and LTC. They are both overwhelmed specialties needing the generalist insight and time mgt skills that the nurses need to possess.

And just FYI - what I DID in MS eons ago, is now the level of acuity that I see in LTC today. HONEST :saint:

So kudos to MS and LTC. :bow:

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maybe to be a med/surg nurse one has to have a touch of ADHD- I loved the running around, the putting the peices together.

That's me! :)

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

AMEN SISTER!!!!!!!!!!! I'm that ICU nurse running away!! I admire med surg nurses very much!!!!!

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Specializes in ICU / PCU / Telemetry / Oncology.

It's too bad many nursing students and new grad nurses scoff at the idea of working on med/surg as their first job, desiring instead more luxurious (for lack of a better word) specialties such as NICU or some other critical care. I fell onto a medicine floor just for the sake of having a job right out of school in this economy. Granted, I know I won't be on this unit forever, but for the time being I am learning so much, my foundation will be strong for whatever I choose to do thereafter.

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Specializes in Cardiac, Tele, Med Surg, LTC.

Awww thanks everyone. I currently work on a busy med surg floor, there are days I come home and say did I do all that in one 12 hr shift? Days my brain is on overload that it is hard to come down.

" The coordinating of ever-expanding multidisciplinary teams, specialists, hospitalists, technology, the push to get the patient out the door from the moment they're admitted, and the complexity of today's med/surg patients is astounding." - [COLOR=#003366]Guttercat

It definately is, I can get patients that have issues from every body system, that have me running in all different directions, then when it is decided they need surgery, who is in charge to get everything ready? Let's not even talk about post op patients..

I started off as a cardiac nurse and moved over to Med Surg, you definately learn and establish the best nursing foundation. I can pretty much float to any floor in the hospital, ( except L & D ) and I am able to get it done. But other nurses that come from other floors to my floor, they can't hack it.

"It's good to finally see it in print after all these years- the ability to juggle so many patients with so many different diagnosis on one team assignment is no easy task. Med/surg nurses had/have to know everything about every disease know to mankind- not to mention all the meds, expected labs, diagnotic tests, preps, and proceedures that went along with those diseases." - [COLOR=#003366]kcmylorn

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Specializes in ER; Acute Care; UM; SNF; Hospice.

This is so true! I worked in a hospital for 17 yrs on just about every unit; and I was a Nurse Manager on the Med/Surg unit the last few years of my career there. I believed in it and wanted it to be a good unit. BUT -- I could not keep staff... why?; because it was damn hard work and they would train on my unit and as soon as they could they would bid for a job on the other units. And admittedly - it was just too much on them working on the med surg; where you had everything from peds to hospice, oh and lets not forget a detox program. REALLY!? HC administrators -- who wouldn't want to leave this unit and work in another department where the work load was much less.

It was brutal and when it came down to it, I couldn't blame them for leaving ... our floor was the toughest and half the time, someone called in or was pulled to another unit (due to mandates the other units HAD to staffed by so many). I hated to leave; but I couldn't do it to myself anymore either; started affecting my health and my life was run by it for far too long. I pray I never have to go back there!

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Specializes in Oncology.

LOL try LTC with acute patients who just came from the hospital with tubes, drains, wound vacs, piccs, IVs, all kinds of crazy meds and wounds, psycho families, unreasonable demands and are totally demented. Fresh amputations, fresh CABGS, fresh craniotomies, etc. It's like med surg but with 10x as many patients and less than half the staff and supplies, no docs, and no help haha.

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I loved that I got a med-surg unit after grad. But I'm truly drowning in it, I fighting tooth and nail to be a good nurse. So I will always give props for med-surg! You do have some of the hardest work in the hospital!

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Agree with you absolutely, 100%. I left med-surg after five years, and I swear I learned more in those five years than I'd be willing to BET would be learned anywhere else. Jack-of-All-Trades, in a BIG way.

I now work in ambulatory surgery/endoscopy, and I thank my lucky stars at how easy I have it now, by comparison. NO comparison, actually.

Other specialties may come out saying "no, no, WE have it harder" but I have to say I don't buy it. I floated to every area of the hospital--EVERY area--sometimes for several days' running, so I definitely saw alot--and nowhere did I ever find it as challenging, on a day-in, day-out basis.

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I could not agree more. Beautifully stated!

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