katygw

I’m sorry to hear your med surg experience wasn’t better. It sounds like you made the right move though! Definitely get some good nursing experience under your belt before you go back to school. Having a foundation of nursing knowledge out in the field and assessment skills will help you in the long run! I’m glad I waited and got experience before I made the grad school decision. Hope the mom and baby unit is going well and best of luck on your journey! Enjoy it!

Hello! WOW! what can happen in 9 years! I only ended up staying at that job for 7 months. I haven’t done med surg since and it was what was best for me. I worked in allergy, dermatology, endoscopy, and currently have been in perioperative nursing for the past 2 years which I love! I feel like I found my niche in nursing for sure. My confidence has grown with experience and time to the point where I decided to go back to graduate school to get my Masters in nurse practitioning! So I’m working in a university hospital‘s surgical center and I’m a part time student at their university. Enjoying it all and wouldn’t change anything. Are you brand new on your floor? Problems with a preceptor? Just remember: Things will get better-whether they do on that floor or not, they will get better. I know for me personally, it was best for me to go elsewhere. I am the first to admit I can be a better nurse when I can focus...trying to juggle 5 patients, which isn’t even that many by med surg standards, was tough for me. Learning what your strengths, Weaknesses, likes, dislikes, and preferences are all comes with time. I knew the floor was not meant for me and it may or may not be for you..but that is a decision you have to make. I would talk with your manager if you haven’t already! Any other new nurses on the floor you could relate to or confide in may help too. Just know there are other things out there if this doesn’t work out. I’m a firm believer in changing your situation if it doesn’t make you happy. ?

Hi ButtonNose! since I posted this original thread many things have changed! I just got an offer to work in an allergy office and I am taking it not only to "escape" the floor but also because I think Ill actually be happy there! lol I think I will do well in a lower stress environment such as an office and I like the idea that I can help people but have them go on their merry way afterwards! I like that ill be able to focus on what Im doing with one person at a time and not 5 highly acute patients. I would still consider the outpatient OR setting in the future but after this experience I know I will not want to work in a hospital ever again. Glad I got the experience and learned alot but am GLAD that I'm leaving..just have 4 more shifts on the floor. But sounds like we have the same feelings...my advice is to just start applying to other places! I have 7 months med surg experience now so I would try to stick it out to at least 6 months if you havent already as it looks stronger on your resume.. let me know if you hear from anyone and if your going to pursue the OR. Good luck!

Ive been fortunate in that its happened to me a couple times. First time for my first nursing job in med surg which I am happily leaving this soon approaching feb 18th after 7 months for an allergy office job I was just offered on the spot for this past sunday..couldnt be happier to leave the crazy hospital floor which I will never work on again..and the office is well staffed, well run, doctor is very nice...I was just lucky to be in the right place at the right time and apply right when they posted the job on the internet..applied sat and got the job sunday. If you get a good "vibe" I say go for it! if they will take any warm body to fill a position asap that can be a red flag...the office Ill be working at has some older nurses who they anticipate to be retiring sooner or later and they wanted to bring me in so they arent in a bind to get someone on the staff later on if something happened unexpectedly to one of the older nurses.

Is this a peds floor in a hospital?! and they only give you 12 shifts of orientation? that to me sounds very wrong and just plain unsafe especially if this is in an acute setting. I oriented to my adult med surg floor for about three months...they happily extended it from 6 wks to 9-10 wks. On a peds floor I would think they would give you around what I got if not more since with peds you have to be so safe and careful because its children! I would definitely go to your manager asap and tell her youll need more time...that way she'll know and wont be thrown for a loop if you were to tell her at shift 11 that you need more time...this way she can make sure it can be arranged or tell you if more time is doable at all...I say act on it now rather than wait and see...if they want to produce a competent and safe new grad they have to expect to put time into your training..just my opinion.

I feel alot of what has been posted..started on the floor in July...have been on my own for about a month now..trying to stick it out til the 6-8 month mark and looking for an OR opportunity at that time whether it be at my facility or elsewhere. My floor and its sister floor are pretty stressful..especially for me b/c I trained on the floor I was HIRED for my whole orientation and have gotten put on the other floor for half the time ive been on my own already (these floors are different-one is tele and has different types of surgery and is more acute=the floor I didnt orient to..idk why they're "sister" floors)..one new grad just quit at the end of his orientation to my floor bc he felt he couldnt handle it...needless to say it looks like my floor has a high turnover which isnt comforting. Im just taking it one shift at a time, and hope this shall pass quickly because I know this is not for me, I cant handle being pulled in 340986 different directions on a very acute floor..Im running around all night yet feel like Im doing nothing..I was an honor student and want to transfer that drive over to work but I just can't handle all that is thrown at me in 8 hrs and feel burnt out and frustrated most of the time on my shift which doesnt help with your performance...anyways just wanted to vent, nice to know Im not alone but still feeling depressed about it...plus I found out today I work xmas eve and xmas day and thanksgiving...so much for having any holidays whatsoever with my family...

yup Im feeling the same things...just got off orientation 3 weeks ago. I trained on a med surg unit with more abdominal stuff, but a good mix of surg and medical and what happens my SECOND week on my own...I get put on our "sister" unit but its not considered floating because its our "sister" unit...what a load of crap..this other floor is more thoracic, back pts, more acute pts, AND it's tele (and Im not tele because my unit that I was hired for isnt)...and I only had one day of my 10 week orientation (extended from 6 weeks thank God) on our "sister" unit and I was thrown there my second week going solo which I think is ridiculous..was there tonight..left an hour late, cried the whole way home. I really do hate M/S..and I agree with the above that I don't feel like a nurse, I feel stressed all the time and burned out already..I even asked my manager today if I could go down to 32 hrs a week because I need the extra day off to collect myself and because I feel like I have absolutely no life. and I totally feel the same way EDnursetobe, the only thing getting me through this is when I have the weekend or a day off (which I do this weekend yay) and that I wont be doing this for long. ultimately would want to stay a year but that is sounding longer and longer each day...Ill be happy with 8 months (counting orientation) at this point.

Thanks for replying! comforting to know someone out there has felt the same things about MS! lol ultimately if I could hold out til the one year mark on the MS floor thatd be great but we'll see. glad to hear you love the OR, I have a good feeling about it and hopefully when the time is right I can land a position there. thanks again.

thank you for the replies! since my message some shifts have been better than others...but I know that will happen with any job...today is my last day of orientation so its going to get even more interesting...I wanna stick it out for a year and move on afterwards..Ill do my best..I know Im learning alot of my floor, I just dont think long term I would be able to deal with it all to be honest, stress, etc. would burn me right out. OR strikes my fancy..so that's kind of my goal for a little bit down the road.

I've been working on a med surg unit since July, about to come off orientation...and I already feel like I know I want to put in the bare minimum (6 months) before I can transfer. The pace is crazy and makes me feel uncomfortable, especially at the start of the shift when Im trying to see everyone and an admission comes up or an issue with a pt with new orders,etc, etc. I dont like doing the majority of the tasks you do on a MS floor (but the one thing I do enjoy IVs, procedures, dsg changes but that is what 3% of the time) and the sheer NUMBER of tasks in general is just...daunting. And I feel like I can't possibly fit all the information I need to know or remember to do in my head in order to care for everyone, even when I write it on paper I feel I dont remember to do everything on time. Time management and pacing is hard for me, especially when I want to take the few minutes with a person when all the while in the back of my head I have to keep thinking about how to leave the room without being rude and cutting the person off because I still have to do X,Y, and Z. And I feel like its sometimes hard to really learn in such a chaotic environment. I also feel like I almost have to half ass some of what Im doing (or at least not do some things I had planned) in order to get what needs to be done done, and that has never been in my personality to not do things 100%. I know many would say to this "just give it time, itll get better!"...but what if I just don't LIKE med surg? Does getting better at something automatically mean that I'll like it? I think the two are very different lol. Ive read on here how people have left nursing because they started in MS and hated it, I dont want this experience to jade my view of nursing completely because there has to be something out there that I'll like. But I've also read that transferring after 6 months looks bad but at this point I dont really care...I dont know..overall I just want this "experience" to be over. Am I crazy or do others feel this way? Ive heard you can either love or hate MS..I think Im the later. I feel like my personality could do well in the OR...I just wonder if I should give MS time and then transfer or not waste their time and look into OR now.

Hello! Im a new grad nurse who started working on a med surg floor this July. While I know my time on the floor will expose me to so many different things I don't think I could handle the stress for years...I want to get my M/S experience and then find a specialty. I am considering OR as something that may be a good fit for me in the future...before anyone yells at me I know the OR is very stressful as well...not saying I would go there because it's easier than M/S but I feel that it could be an environment that suits me well. I am a very detail oriented, thorough, safety conscious person. I love anatomy...I found that class to be one of the most interesting in my 4 years in college. I like to put all of my focus and energy into what I am doing and I feel that with the OR with one case at a time I can really do everything I need to do correctly and safely for the patient. I am new to nursing and I've found out that med surg can be alot thrown at you in a short period. I feel that sometimes I am stretching myself too thin and forget to do the little things that I want to do for my patients..or that I forgot to chart something, etc. etc. I feel that with the focus needed in the OR I could really be a beneficial team member as I know my brain will not be trying to balance 5 pts' issues but rather one pt. who needs much attention and care while on the table. There was a new grad periop program at the hosp I am working at but timing, etc. wasnt right and I might not have been seriously considering it at the time. I think around a year from now it would be nice to be starting in the OR and even nicer if I got a position where I orient to preop, OR, PACU as the periop program does.. that way I can get a great mix of everything, never get bored, still have some pt. interaction, and not always try to juggle so so much as on a floor. I guess my question is more for anyone who went from the floor to the OR..do you enjoy it? are my interests that I stated above relevant to being fit for the OR? I will probably try to shadow just to see what it is like down the road if I decide to try to get in the OR...I know you really either love it or hate it and I would make sure it's a good fit...just something I'm considering...thanks in advance to any OR nurses for their opinions.:)

thanks for the comforting words, didn't sound like my manager wants a drug test...she said to read over the policy and let me preceptor know..but as you said if anything needs to be done I know it's for everyone's safety...as for giving a dropped pill..I just dont even know why that happened..Im a germophobe so it shouldnt have but it was so quick and unexpected and he was adamant that he didn't care so he just took it...dumb on my part..still punching myself (figuratively speaking) about that...it just happened so fast! Im so paranoid that he's going to get some infection or something..he's a younger guy (compared to the majority of geriatric pts we get) with a very good appetite when I had him so hoping the pill was digested and broken down and eliminated quickly. the whole thing was just a mess..bottom line always in MED CUPS...I usually use the med cup but for some reason I wasnt on these occasions...learned my lesson!

Good to know Im not the only one either, thanks as well lol..yes it's like you described it..I just didn't even think about it because with other pills you dont really think twice (if a vitamin were to fall on the floor..no problem to just throw it away)...it's not like I said in my mind right then "oh I should waste this but eh whatever"...I legitimately just didn't think to do it...dont ask why I just didnt! Sometimes I get ahead of myself and I think it's what happened here. I just want to tell my preceptor, hope my manager is okay and move on. I have 3 classroom days starting tomorrow and then the weekend off..I'd like to enjoy this mini mental/physical break from the floor without worrying about this the entire time...I'm like that at times unfortunately..I tend to dwell on things...but I know only I can control that.

my manager said to let her know I'll just explain it as I did on this board which is the God's honest truth...I just wasnt expecting the pill to fall so I didnt really think it through and just thought about getting another one...wasnt expecting to have to waste so my brain didnt really realize it and consider it. Sometimes I wonder what I look to to my preceptor and manager...like a crazy chicken with my head cut off not knowing all of this stuff...I just hope they can see where I'm coming from and understand...Im just overwhelmed and trying to do the best I can. I want to get alot out of med surg so I can have the experience and gain the knowledge and then go into a specialty...right now it just seems so "task" oriented and like Im not using my brain..hopefully that changed with time.

thanks for the replies...I realize in the scheme of things there are much more major errors that can be made...I have to mention it to my preceptor and I hope she is okay about it...she's very nice and helpful...honestly my brain just kind of skipped to the next step which was getting a new pill...whereas I should have first wasted the other one...in no way was trying to make it quicker or easier..and the fact that it was unplanned made my brain kind of skip that step...Ive wasted narcs before when they come in the syringes and have done it correctly..I guess this being my first run in with an unintentional situation where a waste was needed didn't really jog my brain into doing that...if that makes sense to anyone lol. I just hope everyone is okay about it and can move on...and yes trust me from now on ALWAYS into a cup...he was a young pretty healthy guy so I figured I'd just pop em into his hand..wrong idea on my part lol.