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

[Guttercat]

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.

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

Thank you Guttercat.

Med/Surg is an underappreciated speciality. Nurses complain about it being a difficult place to work. It's not med/surg pt's that make it difficult, it's your facility that makes it so by giving crap staffing. The same goes for ED, ICU, L&D, etc..I hear nurses not feeling safe either because they aren't staffed well enough.

I seriously came full circle in my career. I started on a Med/Surg floor and then worked float pools at various hospitals throughout my career. Finally, after a few years, I stayed at a hospital near my home fo 16 horrible years. They treated ALL floors like crap and understaffing. I would float to mother/baby, ED, Endo, Ortho, PCU only to see them running around like chickens without heads. Med/Surg was horrific to say the least. After 16 yrs I was burned out on nursing. I left the profession for close to 5 yrs.

Heading back was difficult for me, but I chose a good organization that cared about staffing and education. My circle is now complete. I'm back on a med/surg nurse and am a FT charge. I can't be happier. I like the variety of our patients.

My organization sends us to a special certification course that is 4 months long. We have all passed the cert test and are either ANCC or AMSN certified. There are more nurses in the wings that will start this fall.

You can be a happy med/surg nurse, if your facility treats you right.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

I'm too old to work Med/Surg anymore -- I'm also that ICU nurse running off the floor! Kudos to them as can (and do) do it!

[ShaynaSmart]

My class had a very good experience last semester and I would consider a med/surg position after I graduate, just so I can be exposed to everything I can get my hands on! Those ladies and gentlemen worked so hard and were busy, but always took the time to help us learn something. Very rewarding experience!

[anotherone, BSN, RN]

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.

Yep, where I work ICU are the heros and get all the glory from administration, themselves, drs etc. They think they can do what we do but we can't do what they do. Yet, the few times I have seen an ICU nurse on our floor they are barely able to manage. BARELY. It is different. one isn't better or easier than the other. at least not by far.

[C-lion]

This is all good food for thought. I am a new graduate and have been offered a job in M/S and one in the ED. I am a little nervous, but ya'll do make it sound like doing this out of school will prepare me for most other areas...I really want to work in the ED, but think going M/S might be a more practical choice.

[tokmom, BSN, RN]

Yep, where I work ICU are the heros and get all the glory from administration, themselves, drs etc. They think they can do what we do but we can't do what they do. Yet, the few times I have seen an ICU nurse on our floor they are barely able to manage. BARELY. It is different. one isn't better or easier than the other. at least not by far.

Gee, no kidding. We get that attitude all the time. When ED is busy they get the superviser to help them. When we are drowning, do you think anyone helps us? Of course not.

ICU nurses at times have to float to our area and most do ok. A select few just can't do it and tell us they only want to take 2 pts. Yeah right!!

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

This is all good food for thought. I am a new graduate and have been offered a job in M/S and one in the ED. I am a little nervous, but ya'll do make it sound like doing this out of school will prepare me for most other areas...I really want to work in the ED, but think going M/S might be a more practical choice.

I think going to Med/Surg is the much better choice. After two years on Med/Surg, you will have a good foundation to go anywhere.

[C-lion]

I just accepted a job on a Med-Surg Observation unit:) I wasn't sure so sure about the observation part of it, but I think it will still be a good first job for me, and maybe later I can move somewhere else, as you said. Thank you for your reply!

[Guttercat, ASN, RN]

I think today's MS RN has not only a more medically complex patient population than they did ten or fifteen years ago, but that the context of work-flow means even a simple task now takes several more steps to accomplish, and intuitive, clinical reasoning is ever-increasingly guided by a computer-generated "think-replacer".

The actual process of delivering medical care is evermore encumbered by systems.

Not to say it's all bad, but I'm out.

Going back to college.

I have better things to do than to have my clinical expertise, and patient care delivery delegated by computer code and clunky, cumbersome devices that freeze ad lib and ad infinitum.

[anotherone, BSN, RN]

Gee, no kidding. We get that attitude all the time. When ED is busy they get the superviser to help them. When we are drowning, do you think anyone helps us? Of course not.

ICU nurses at times have to float to our area and most do ok. A select few just can't do it and tell us they only want to take 2 pts. Yeah right!!

Haha. We have gotten a few like that. You mean I have to take ANOTHER PATIENT? How many does everyone else have? Yes, and you might get another admission. This is a good shift!

[welch07]

I love my med/surg/onc. i work on a 40 bed unit and have for 7 yrs. I have no desire to leave med/surg but i know some day my back will be telling me to leave bed side nursing . I enjoy the varity of pt's I get yes some are good and of course some are bad but that is in any type of nursing you do. ICU is not for me to many bells that make noise, ER if only I could care for adults pedi is not for me. I give a hand to all the ICU/ER nurses you can be just as busy and crazy as any med/surg floor.

[Soliloquy, MSN, APRN, NP]

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.

I'm a senior atm in nursing school and I look forward to working on a [Peds] Med/Surg floor because I like it. I see everything, get an opportunity to talk and spend time with my patients, but they're seldom there for long long long periods of time which I also like so it just works for me. I like the pace as well. I know a lot of students really don't want anything to do with med/surg and want the fast paced stuff but I love med/surg so far.