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I am getting very frustrated trying to get a comprehensive understanding of lab values- how they related to each other and the patient and how can I use them to help me provide nursing care. We don't really talk much about it in school and the lab book we have sucks!! Does anyone have any advise??

I have defiantly ran into the "med-surg or else..." way of thinking. I work in Med-surg now as a CNA and I don't buy it at all!!! I think people get pushed into it, don't like, then instead of finding a different area, quit nursing all together. I have heard this from many med/surg nurses that I respect a lot. I have this charge nurse that I talk to about my nursing queries- she had been a nurse for more than 20 years but still stays hip with new stuff. Her opinion on the "med/surg or else..." theory is that it is outdated. One of the pros of med-surg is you get an opertunity to pratice lots of basic nursing skills like putting in foley's, giving injections ect. that you might not do as much in a different speciality. You also see lot of common conditions like COPD, CHF ect. that you might not see in a specialty. This is not nearly as critical as it used to be because of the advent of nursing preceptor/internships, for new nurses as well as nurses going to a different speciality. If you want to work in a different speciality, you facility will train you there, so why do you need to learn about something in med-surg? Maybe you might have to do multiple preceptor/interships in your career- BIG DEAL!! At least in my hospital system, they pay you nursing wadges and benefits. I think you should check out hospice nursing if you don't like the hospital. Hospice is a beautiful thing!! And, it not all sad, there are lots of opertunities to give TLC in a creative and intamate way that will leave you with a warm fuzzy feeling at the end of the day!

Yeah, there is a pretty big difference. ACU is usually a med/surg unit- patients that aren't that sick. An ICU is critical care- patients who are very sick and require lots of nursing care and assesment. Most ACU nurses take care of 4 patients, where ICU nurses take care of 2.