NICU vs MedSurg

Nurses New Nurse

Published

Hi fellow nurses,

I am a new grad, and was recently offered a position in MEDSURG and NICU. I'm having a really hard time deciding which one to accept. MEDSURG is a broad unit, which I feel would be a great start to my nursing career. And NICU is specialty unit, so I'm not sure if this is the best choice to go with initially.

Please help! And thank you in advance :)

My personal take is go to NICU. I run across burnt out, miserable Med/Surg nurses all the time. The NICU nurses I've run across all love their jobs.

Also, NICU is hard to get into. If you don't like it, you will be able to get a Med/Surg position easily, but it doesn't work the other way around. Once you're in Med/Surg, the powers that be try to keep you there because there is such a high turnover of nurses. About the only ways I've found to get out is to go to Critical Care or get more education and become an NP. (I am sure some people have had good luck switching specialties, just not the people I know.)

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Specializes in LTC, med/surg, hospice.

I vote for NICU. Med surge will always take you back.

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Specializes in family practice and school nursing.

NICU for all the reasons listed above

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Specializes in Pediatrics, High-Risk L&D, Antepartum, L.

If you want NICU...do it. But if you sit there and think "I don't want to do babies" or "and ICU setting isn't for me" then don't do it.

There's no harm in going right into a specialty...if that speciality is where you want to work. If you don't see yourself as a NICU nurse...walk away from it.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, NICU.

NICU RN is my dream job, but obviously I am bias. However...

Turnover in med-surg is high. I just finished up my preceptorship in a med-surg unit, and all the nurses there are miserable and are looking to switch to other floors. NICU nurses, on the other hand, are there for life, or until they finish up their NP programs. NICU Nurses experience less burn out and on-the-job injuries.

Just something to think about. You can always go into med-surg later, but transitioning from adults to babies is very difficult.

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I would go into the NICU unless you KNOW you don't want to work with those tiny little babies and/or you know the ICU setting is not for you. Both are stressful, they just are stressful in different ways. Good luck with whichever you choose.

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Specializes in HIV.

It really depends on what population you want to work with. Do you want to help babies only, or the whole age spectrum? On my med/surg unit we get babies to elderly, depending. Also, med/surg is very busy but it really helps building your time management skills. You can always change later if you want.

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Specializes in Telemetry, OB, NICU.

Just because a job is hard to find doesn't make it a right choice for everybody.

Don't go into an area where you will be miserable. Who cares if it is hard to find if you don't like it for yourself?

Think about what you want to do in the long run. IF you want to do NICU eventually, Med-surg experience won't really help you other than general skills like time-management and stuff. But if you don't want to work with babies, then don't. Take the med-surg position. I mean go with what you want to do.

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Specializes in NICU.

I was just hired in the NICU and I know how excited I am so congradulations. I didn't even apply to any open medsurg jobs though so I would never have the decision or problem making the decision you have. For me, I can't see myself doing anything but NICU, working with these sick little babies, I know I want to work in neonates/infants, I don't want to work with the older patients so it was a no brainer for me.

Please, before you decide, think if you really want the NICU. Can you handle the stress and the inevitable situation losing a patient, not just any patient, a little baby, a few days or weeks old. Can you really look at a baby with all the lines and problems he/she has and make it through the day? If you can't, then you know medsurg is the place for you.

Honestly, if you are even debating on whether to go into the NICU or medsurg, then that pretty much gives you the answer as to what you should do. If the NICU doesn't jump out at you and make you overly ecstatic, then it's probably not for you. I think you have to be a very specific person to do that kind of work.

You may find that you hate them both though as well. Maybe neither are right for you, many nurses change careers many times in their life, try different units until they find the one they can't leave. Hopefully you find yours. Good luck to you.

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Med surg is the bane of my existence for floating as an ICU nurse.

The choice is easy, very few people actually LIKE Med surg

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Thank you so much fellow nurses, for your input/advise. This has been really helpful in helping me decide which unit to accept. I thought MEDSURG was the obvious choice, but now I'm not sure. I do remember loving my NICU rotation during nursing school. I know I have the ability/strength to care for really sick little babies.

As a new grad, I have been told by several nurses that NICU shouldn't be the beginning of my career, because if I later want to work with adults, then you are not trained into that unit because you have previous nursing experience. So that transition from babies to adults is really difficult.

Clearly I'm still not sure. However, everyone's input has made it much easier for me to decide. It sounds like NICU is a once in a lifetime special opportunity VS MEDSURG where I can always get hired later. And it also sounds like I'd be a happy nurse VS a stressed out/burned out nurse. I would like to be a happy nurse!

Thank you all again for your help! :)

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Thank you so much fellow nurses, for your input/advise. This has been really helpful in helping me decide which unit to accept. I thought MEDSURG was the obvious choice, but now I'm not sure. I do remember loving my NICU rotation during nursing school. I know I have the ability/strength to care for really sick little babies.

As a new grad, I have been told by several nurses that NICU shouldn't be the beginning of my career, because if I later want to work with adults, then you are not trained into that unit because you have previous nursing experience. So that transition from babies to adults is really difficult.

Clearly I'm still not sure. However, everyone's input has made it much easier for me to decide. It sounds like NICU is a once in a lifetime special opportunity VS MEDSURG where I can always get hired later. And it also sounds like I'd be a happy nurse VS a stressed out/burned out nurse. I would like to be a happy nurse!

Thank you all again for your help! :)

If NICU is what you want then go for it. It does kind of box you in, as does OB or any other specialty floor.

If you ever wanted to do adult ICU you would need to do another residency all over again, the two (NICU vs adult ICU) don't have as much in common as you think.

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