What do you call a registered nurse without a specialty? Canada

Nurses General Nursing

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I am a high school student and I want to become a nurse. What I want to know just out of curiosity, is what your everyday nurse who works in normal patient rooms in a hospital. Maybe a staff nurse? A medical nurse? What is a staff nurse and what is a medical nurse? This is in Canada if that helps any. Thanks

Specializes in ICU.

Your probably refering to what we call a Med/surg (medical/surgical) nurse. But there are sub-specialties depending on which floor you work, such as ortho, gastric, medical oncology ect.

Specializes in Med/Surg, ICU, educator.
Your probably refering to what we call a Med/surg (medical/surgical) nurse. But there are sub-specialties depending on which floor you work, such as ortho, gastric, medical oncology ect.

MedSurg is it's own specialty, I'm certified (CMSRN), as well as certifiable :bugeyes:

Specializes in Acute Care, Rehab, Palliative.

She would be called an RN.

I work in Canada.

You are a staff nurse. Your speciality is the area you choose to work. I'm a surgical nurse because I work on surgical floor. As above posters stated within surgery you can work Ortho, Plastics, Gynie, Urology. Our cancer patients are mainly in Gynie and General Surgery. Having said that their are nurses that work in the Cancer Clinics with mainly the chemo and radiation patients.

Then there are the Children's Hospitals. Pedatrics is a specialty but within that specialty you have surgical, psych and medicine units.

We use the term "medicine" not medical. Basically, you work with chronic rather than acutely ill patients. Can be a lot like LTC due to the amounts of meds you have to administer.

Surgical nurses hate getting medicine patients due to the sheer number of meds they take. Having said that the way hospital beds are being assigned being a surgical nurse make you need to know a bit about every area. Kind of jack of all trades, master of none.

In the last month, my unit has wound up with three psych patients (only one had surgery), a urology patient, three broken hips, a trach (nobody wanted that one), and four patients waiting for palliative beds.

It's never dull.

I would call that person a staff nurse AKA: TIRED!!;)

I am a high school student and I want to become a nurse. What I want to know just out of curiosity, is what your everyday nurse who works in normal patient rooms in a hospital. Maybe a staff nurse? A medical nurse? What is a staff nurse and what is a medical nurse? This is in Canada if that helps any. Thanks

And nine times out of ten there is no such thing as a "normal patient"

Specializes in Vascular Surgery.

I thought there would be some sort of punch line in this post. tongue.gif

And nine times out of ten there is no such thing as a "normal patient"

I guess I forgot/miss place my comma in the "Normal Patient Rooms" What I mean to saw is that the "Normal" is the adjective and the "Patient rooms" as the one single noun.

MedSurg is it's own specialty, I'm certified (CMSRN), as well as certifiable :bugeyes:

Thank you. I know understand much better. And I know understand that med/surg is its own specialty. I guess it is because it the the most common nurse that I see when I am visiting people in the hospital. Thanks so much. And thanks to everyone else as well!:up:

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