What do med surg nusres do?

nightingale, RN · Jun 8, 2003

Quote
Originally posted by nluvsj
What type of patients do you care for?
What type of care do you provide?
Do you have any other certifications other than being an RN?
How long are patients in your unit?
What kind of hours do you work?
What kind of experience do you need and or get in med surg?
I appreciate any assistance anyone can give. I am so clueless as to where to even start my research.

I will answer in order (while skipping some):

Any patient who is an adult, especially those with a tube or drain can show up on a Med/Surg Floor. Some floors seem to lean more towards either Medical or Surgical (an it does truly vary).

Primary Nursing or Team Nursing.

I am Board Certified in Med/Surg through the ANCC (American Nurses Credentialing Center).

Hint: Join the American Nurses Association while you are a student for the best discounted rate. It is a bargain with the free magazine and membership options. IMHO, the best way to maintain a voice in nursing.

The unit I currently work on is primarily Surgical, postoperative Urinary and Gastric surgeries (mostly). There are also a lot of Orthopaedic Patients and some ever present intermixed Medical patients. Some also have portable telemetry which is monitored elsewhere.

Hours on our unit are 7A to 7P. A popular time frame as it is easier for the hospital to staff 12 hour schedules then 8 hour schedules. Yes, there are still some of those 8's but far and few in between. I occasionally see some 10 hours schedules in my floating of different hospital as an Agency Nurse.

Often, when one finishes school, you start on a med/surg floor because of the variety of the adult patients. I have heard the med/surg nurses called the worker bees of the hospital - and it is true that the work is plentiful.

Start your research by doing a search of the med/surg periodicals. I always liked going to the medical library and doing a search of the university search engines.

Good Luck to you and let us know how you are doing. ?

dwoodruff, RN · Jun 21, 2003

What type of patients do you care for?

Med Surg is the title given to general hospital nurses. Really, this is no longer valid. Most Med Surg floors have some sort of specialty (vascular, urology, plastic surgery, etc.)

Nurses who work in hospitals are the largest group of nurses and Med-Surg nurses make up the largest number of hospital nurses.

What type of care do you provide?

Med-Surg care is very generalized. You get a wide variety of different patient populations. Care includes assessment of a wide variety of patient problems, treatments such as dressing changes, respiratory treatments, administering medications to multiple patients, and evaluation of those treatments. Med-Surg nurses interact with doctors, respiratory therapists, physical therapists, and other professionals.

How long are patients in your unit?

Typically patients are on the Med-Surg floor for about 2-3 days, depending on the type of unit. Longer stays are typical of Medical floors, shorter stays on surgical floors.

What kind of hours do you work?

You will probably be hired for 40 hours a week. Due to the nursing shortage, nurses are working more overtime than ever, though.

What kind of experience do you need and or get in med surg?

You can be hired into Med-Surg as a new grad. The experience you get is invaluable. In order to move into specialty areas like critical care or surgery you will need Med-Surg experience.

I hope this helps,

David Woodruff, MSN, RN, CNS, CCRN

Ed4Nurses, Inc.

Nursing Continuing Education

nluvsj · Jun 21, 2003

Thanks, everyone!!!

I really appreciate you all answering my questions. You all have given me some great info. My report is due Thursday. Wish me luck.

nightingale, RN · Jun 22, 2003

Nicole?

What other resources were you able to find information in?

jayne109, RN · Jun 22, 2003

Quote
Originally posted by nluvsj
What type of patients do you care for?
What type of care do you provide?
Do you have any other certifications other than being an RN?
How long are patients in your unit?
What kind of hours do you work?
What kind of experience do you need and or get in med surg?

I am a new grad ( graduated in December 2003) and I work at a small community hospital. WE have L & D, Med-Surg (where I work) outpatient surgery and ICU as well as A geriatric wellness unit.

To answer your questions:

I care for a variety of patients, peds to dying. We ship the more critical ones to a larger, more equipped hospitals/

I provide care for either post op patients or medical patients (pneumonia, GI bleeds, etc.)

I am working on my EMT hoping to become a paramedic (I want to be an ER nurse someday)

We work 7a-7p and 7p-7a (I work nights and Absolutely love it) WE work 3 days a week plus extra days that we pick up for double pay. It is nice for the paycheck. Some also sign a contract to do all weekends and get an extra 20 hours in pay.

My experience on Med-Surg is invaluable. I care ofr pediatrics and their families and also young adults, middle adults and older adults with a variety of medical conditions. We do lap choles, colon surgeries, scopes, even limited trauma surgeries (most get shipped to trauma centers 50 miles away)

I hope this helps you. Good luck on your report. I remember the days of reports myself. Hang in there. The best is yet to come.

Melissa

vencebi_rn, RN · Nov 6, 2007

Hi, I've been a Med-Surg nurse at a university hospital for the past 4 years. I was a new grad going in to the specialty. We generally work 12 hour shifts, but there are nurses that do 8 hour shifts. We care for all patients that are not critically ill but still need to be in the hospital. Their illness range from pneumonia to HIV/AIDS and everything in between. We generally try to educate and teach the patients about their different medical conditions while we are caring for them and we are the link between the patients and the physicians, advocating to make sure the getting the care that they need. Patients are on the unit for 24 hours up to one years or more depending on the severity of their illness. Nurses are not required to have any special certifications for a med-surg floor, however you can become certified in the med-surg specialty. It is recommended that new nurses should start in the med-surg units for the experience that it offers before moving on to the ED, ICU, or other critical care specialty. The hospital you are working for and the type of patients that are admitted into the hospital will determine the type of experience you will receive on a med-surg unit.

MedSurgLPN2005, LPN · Apr 10, 2008

A lot of people seem to think that med-surg is generally separated into special areas such as uro-surgeries vs. bone fractures, which is probably the case in a huge hospital with plenty of space. I work on a floor in a small hospital where this is not the case. Being a small hospital, we only have 1 floor for med-surg so we get a wide variety of patients from MI's and strokes to post-ops and chemotherapy and detox patients. We get pneumonia patients, GI bleeds, fractures, dialysis patients, diabetics, we get it all! This is what I love about this hospital because I go to work everyday just wondering what Im gonna get.

KayleighTravelNurse, RN · Jun 17, 2011

You deal with a wide variety of patients.

kayern · Jun 22, 2011

My nurses do everything with the exception of art lines and vents!

And take care of 7-8 patients at one time. Challenge a critical care nurse to do the same.