Please advise!!!

I think we all wished we could have more time with our patients. If you feel that way already in nursing school with a limited assignment, I don't know. . . I have heard that with some home healthcare one has more time to spend with the clients but there is a lot of paperwork. Pretty much all hospital work is busy. I've often said I would take a large cut in pay for a guaranteed smaller assignment so I could do nursing the way I think it ought to be done. There are special units scattered around out there but as for a specialty all I can think of is home healthcare and I'm sure it has it's own pressures.

It is always good to start on Med-Surg that way you get a general knowlege of alot of different things. After a year or so you can specialize

oops

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Some how I posted this twice. I tried to delete it but do not have access to do that so I edited it! Hope you have a great day.

Welcome to nursing! Units with better staffing and better patient ratios are much more conducive to providing good patient care...unfortunately, these units are hard to find. You can provide good, intensive patient care in the ICU without running around like a chicken with your head cut off...problem there is, if you want your patients to talk back, they usually can't. However, communication is still important and you must help famiy members through very difficult times. Challenging but rewarding! If heading off to Med-surg, try and find a floor with lower turn over and better staffing. They are rare, but they are out there. Good luck.

Welcome to nursing! I am a '02 grad - I went into nursing thinking it would be much different than it is. I too was looking for what you are - I kinda found it. I started working in a step-down unit with a ratio of 1 Rn for 3-4 patients. GREAT EXPERIENCE!! Our unit has very sick patients and occasionally orally intubated patients on Diprovan drips. We do lots of drips - Levophed, Amioradone, Nitro, Dopa, Dobutamine, heparin, insulin, and many more. Other experiences are vents, codes, terminal weans, OR patients, family issues, and the list goes on. Talk about some great learning experiences and the ratio is low enough that even when things are crazy busy, you can still give safe care.

After 2 years here, I am going to Cardiac Rehab, Phase I (inpatient) where the challenges will be much different - mostly bedside teaching.

Getting some tele or adult med/surg experience is great and will strengthen & develop your skills but I know several nurses that jumped right into OB or pediatrics and are doing fine. Your nursing career is a journey, best wishes.

I understand how you feel. One of the reasons I chose intensive care nursing was because I hated the pace of the floors, and I wanted to be able to spend time with my patients and their familes. I was a CNA during school, and that experience plus what I learned in clinicals reinforced my decision. I'd rather have one sick patient than seven stable ones.

As far as getting a year or two on a med-surg floor, I'd recommend that if you are thinking about going into adult care. But if you're leaning towards peds or OB, you really can jump right into those as well. True, you learn the basics and great organizational skills in med-surg, but maternal-child nursing is really it's own little world. Just my opinion.

I jumped right into neonatal intensive care. Never for a moment have regretted skipping med-surg. It's just not the same kind of nursing at all! And while my patients don't talk to me, their parents sure do. While neo/peds intensive care can often mean fast-paced craziness - like when a kid is crashing, or coming back from major surgery, or when there are tons of admissions and it's short - it also can mean having 2 semi-stable patients, leaving you lots of time to spend with them and their families. (By semi-stable I mean stable on a ventilator or something of that acuity.)

Take last night - I had one feeder-grower and one tiny preemie. I spent time with the first baby and her parents, only had to give her a PO or NG feeding every 3 hours. I had plenty of time to give her a bath, bottle feed her, and rock her to sleep during the night. I also spent time with my tiny preemie's parents, in between handling him (central line, ventilator, the whole bit) every 4 hours. Even though he is really very critical (600grams, 16 weeks early), he was having a good night and I was able to let his parents "hold" him for a bit (just held him in the palms of their hands while still inside his isolette) and they were so happy they cried. I felt like I really helped them bond with their tiny son, and they felt like they were getting really special care. Of course, it ain't always fun and games, but last night was pretty nice.

GOOD LUCK!!!