still a good idea to get med/surg experience first?

Specialties Psychiatric

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Hi,

I'm a pre-nursing student with a strong interest in psych nursing. I eventually want to become a PMHNP or psych CNS. So, for a long time the standard motto for new RN grads was to do med/surg first, then get a job in their speciality of choosing. But, I'm wandering if this recession has changed the rules a bit. In this economy some people have commented on here how once you're in a med/surg (or whatever field you're currently in) you can be somewhat pigeon-holed to that area b/c employers are only considering applicants with experience in that area. Do you follow me? In other words, if you're a med/surg nurse now, you might have some luck finding another med/surg job, but it will be harder to switch fields. So, my question is: what would you tell someone who is determined to eventually work in psych; still get a med/surg job first, or go right ahead into psych?

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don't listen to them, you've figured it out for yourself. a new grad that graduates with you and goes directly into psych will be your boss when you decide you've had enough of med/surg and finally get into psych. med/surg is a good area to go into if you don't really know what area you want to go into. it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that a nurse with 2 years psych exp is gonna get hired over a nurse with 2 years med/surg exp for a psych job, if all other things are equal.

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Specializes in telemetry, med-surg, home health, psych.

if psych is your permanent career....go ahead and start in psych...you will learn on the job all of the skills you need for that area..........but then if you ever wanted to go in to another area of nursing it would be difficult with only psych experience.............you don't use near the clinical skills in psych that you would learn on a med/surg unit.......

psych consists of mainly assessments, doing EKG's, drawing blood, administering meds........and that's about it.......an occasional catheter, but rarely...

My advice ::: from one of the "older nurses" would be to go to med/surg first and work 1-2 years.........you will be glad that you did......

hope this helps.......

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Specializes in Psych, EMS.

It is a good idea to do what interests you!

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if psych is your permanent career....go ahead and start in psych...you will learn on the job all of the skills you need for that area..........but then if you ever wanted to go in to another area of nursing it would be difficult with only psych experience.............you don't use near the clinical skills in psych that you would learn on a med/surg unit.......

psych consists of mainly assessments, doing EKG's, drawing blood, administering meds........and that's about it.......an occasional catheter, but rarely...

My advice ::: from one of the "older nurses" would be to go to med/surg first and work 1-2 years.........you will be glad that you did......

hope this helps.......

ITA. You can't go wrong with a year or two of solid med-surg experience to start your career -- you can go anywhere in nursing you want from there. If you go directly into psych and decide a few, or several, years later that you want to (or need to) look for a job in another area, you'll have a v. hard time getting anyone in a non-psych area to take you seriously.

It's working in psych that will "pigeonhole" you, not working in med-surg!

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Specializes in Psych.

I am a recent grad who works psych. I agree that you can not go wrong with med-surg experience. However, I say you need to go where you get hired. The market is tight right now for new grad depending on where you are. I was interested in psych, but wanted to get med-surg experience first. I did not get offered a chance to work med surg. I really like psych, it is a different kind of nursing, but I don't think it is for everyone, just like other nursing fields. It has to be a good fit. Bottom line, with a tight market be open to getting experience where you can. :twocents:

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Specializes in Psych.

I am graduating with my BSN this Dec. and applied to nursing school with the primary intention of becoming a psych nurse. Sounds like that's what's going on in your case, too. I also plan to earn advanced degrees in psych nursing and public health - a dual degree in behavioral science and health education. I am not interested in Med/Surg nursing at all and do not plan to pursue it. As a matter of fact, the thought of it sorta makes me cringe. (Although, I do plan to start out in state hospital and so I'm sure the patients will have plenty of physical co-morbidities. I'll get my Med/Surg experience that way.)

My point is, if you have always known that you wanted to follow a certain career path, you should follow it. If you do it for 6 months and decide that you have made a terrible decision, you will still be a kind of a new grad and could probably find work in Med/Surg just like any other new grad.

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get med surg , psych patients have medical problems too....

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if you only want to be a psych nurse then i say go for it.

i had an interview today with a psych floor and they make new grads do 3 months of medsurg at some point within the first year of working there, so you will still get some experience with working on your nursing skills.

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i had an interview today with a psych floor and they make new grads do 3 months of medsurg at some point within the first year of working there, so you will still get some experience with working on your nursing skills.

I would say that that experience is very unusual -- I've been in psych nursing for 25 years in three states, and have never heard of a place that does that before. One certainly can't count on something like that as a new grad hired into a psych setting.

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Specializes in Psych, Med/Surg, LTC.

I say get the m/s experience first, just in cast you burn out of psych. I did psych first, then later switched to m/s and it was really difficult. I am doing both now. If I could go back, I would have done the m/s first just to get it out of the way. It really does give you a good background to bounce around. It isn't totally necessary though if you are 100% sure that is where you want to be.

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I graduated in June of 2009. Applied EVERYWHERE and finally landed a job as a psych nurse. My first full week on the floor I had a pt with zero history of seizures go into a full clonic-tonic seizure, next I had a pt experiencing cardiac issues that I had to send out to the ED at a hospital.

I stayed in psych for 5 full months and felt that I truly needed some med/surg experience in order to fully take care of my patients. I didn't feel competant enough medically to take care of psych pts with medical needs such as the above and then some.

I did see some nurses in psych who have only worked psych for many, many years. One day I was called to another unit to do a straight cath on a pt because the RN there didn't know how to do it. I can see how this can happen. If you've never had to experience it you'll lose skills.

I think it's really a good move to get a basis of med/surge for a year or so before you move into psych. At least from my own experience in a psychiatric hospital as a new grad.

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