Pros and Cons

[RN44]

Hello there,

I have a question for all you RN's out there. I am a new grad, as of yesterday when I passed my final. I haven't taken my NCLEX yet but will be as soon as my transcripts are released and received, it is already paid for, just have to schedule once I get ATT.

I have been sending out my resume and I have two interviews set up for next week. I am very excited. My question is this......one is in an area I think I really like. It is a cardiac position. The other is a med surg floor. I would like to hear pros and cons from ppl who have worked in either type of unit. I have done a clinical rotation both in med/surg and cardiac so I am somewhat familiar with both...but I know there are many of you with years of experience who could offer some good insight.

Thanks so much for your input

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

It depends on what kind of a "cardiac floor" it is. Is it Med-tele? That isn't much different from Med-Surg, just with heart monitors involved. Is it CICU? That is a pretty specific specialty. Is it cardiac step-down (also called Cardiac PCU - progressive care unit - in some hospitals)?

I have worked all those. If it is med-surg vs med-tele, take the med-tele. If it is stepdown/PCU, take that one. In both Stepdown and Med-tele you will get enough med-surg overflow to get that experience solidly. If it is ICU vs med-surg, evaluate what you want - basic experience or to leap into a specialty.

Best of luck!

[pmabraham, BSN, RN]

Per the previous poster, in order to best answer your question, it would be nice to know what you mean by "cardiac position." I work on a very busy cardiac telemetry floor, and since almost every cardiac patient has multiple comorbidities, we are in effect a medsurg floor. In addition, we tend to get overflow from the various ICU's such that we deal with patients that don't even have cardiac issues (aka med surg floor).