Tele/Med-Surg??? Is this the place to start?

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Hello Everyone!! I reallly need some advice! How do you feel about the Med-Surg/Tele units? I recently recieved a job offer for a night position on a Med-Surg Tele floor. Pt ratio is 5-6 and the hospital has a great reputation. The thing is that I don't really know exactly what type of nursing I want to do. I'm sure I will be ready to switch units in a year probably no matter what I do.

When I have done my clinicals on the Med-Surg floors, the poor nurses seemed sooooooooo busy. It seems like alot of pressure right out of the box. I am 28 almost 29 and my life has been absolutely nuts for about 4 years now. I kinda wanted to do something a little less intense.

Will a year of Med-Surg give me more marketability?

I would appreciate any advise you have!

Thank you!!!!!!! :nurse:

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m/s-tele is definitely going to give you a wide variety of experiences, hence make you more marketable in the future

although I believe 6 patients is a bit elevated, it's not horribly high unless the tele patients are stepdown acuity; and do these ratios cover nights as well, which new grads are often required to do?

whenever in doubt, ask to follow a nurse for a shift or 2, then make a more informed decision based on your observations/experiences

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Thank you for your response!! Yeah, the 5-6 patient ratio is on nights. The thought of that many patients freaks me out honestly! Even though it is nights. It's 1:4 on days. I just don't want to be freaking out all the time. Ya know......

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5-6 on nights is an awesome ratio! Lots of places I have been have had 7-9, even on straight cardiac tele units. MST is an excellent starting out point. You will be seeing a bit of everything but also have the ability to get EKG trained. You will be able to transition to something different quite easily if you choose to do so and will have a broad knowledge base to draw from, which can put you in the lead for great opportunities compared to others who have limited themselves to one very specific specialty.

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im considering of taking this job too...to those who have worked in this area,howz the experience? im a new RN without experience but i wanna climb the nursing job ladder. hope to hear from you. :)

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Specializes in ICU, Med-Surg, Post-op, Same-Day Surgery.

Ditto for me! I am considering a med-surg position as a new grad on the floor where I did my last semester of clinical. I thought I wanted to do ICU, but I feel like I may want to do ER or something else now. I feel kind-of confused. :bugeyes: Med-surg seems like a good place to start, because you get a chance to practice a lot of basic skills and see a huge variety of patients. I feel like med-surg would teach me valuable lessons in time management, organization, communicating across disciplines, and various other skills. Ultimately I'll probably take whatever job is offered!

My questions is does med-surg make you more marketable for an ER, ICU or specialty position? or do they typically prefer to have new graduates that they can "train right".

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