What is it about Med-Surg?

4theBetterGetter, RN · May 12, 2005

many hospitals require some experience in med/surg. after working on a med/onc unit for some years as an aide and throughout nsg. school and going through many students, it makes such sense to me personally to get a foundation there. true there were many injustices regarding staffing and patient ratios. i have suffered along with my nurses. but i think med/surg is such a potporri of specifics that it is an awesome breeding ground for learning. the nurses and docs are resourceful and have to give optimal care under sometimes crummy conditions. when there is a good team it can be done in spite of the staffing issues. you cannot escape the wealth of knowledge received that you can take to the icu, mother baby, pcu, transitional care, er, etc. i hope to be an oncology nurse. but if that is available on a med/onc floor, more power to me. if it is not available to me i will seek out med/surg till i get what i want or till i am ready to move on to something different. i for one am proud of my med/surg,med/onc nurses everywhere(but especially in anchorage, alaskaxxxooo)[/quote
as a m/s rn that "specialized" right out of school i agree with laverne. i feel that it is important to have a solid foundation. i worked my "speciality" [ob] for almost 3 years. i then wen't back to m/s and have been there ever since. thank god for the great team i work with...that makes all the staffing hardships etc. a little easier to take.:balloons:

4theBetterGetter, RN · May 12, 2005

med surg is wonderful. but then again, any job is...as long as you make it that way. working in a small hospital on the med/surg floor allows for many diverse diagnoses, age ranges from infants to nursing home residents. our med/surg unit even gets overflow from the maternity ward. we (day shift) often come in with 7 or 8 patients, and if a ccu nurse has to come to the unit to cover he or she takes 4 patients. and to think...."everyone" thinks they are so special? i think they are wonderful, but that's because i don't want to work ccu, just as i think or nurses, ed nurses, and spu nurses are great. it takes all kinds. i think a big problem with the outlook on a med surg position could be just that, it isn't really considered a "specialty" and doesn't everyone want to be special?

:chuckle sounds like we work at the same place!

midnightRN · May 13, 2005

My hospital gives a new grad a 9 month orientation. You don't even have a patient assignment for the first week or so. Then you start with 1 or 2 patients and work your way up from there. It works well. I just finished being a preceptor for a new grad. As preceptor, I also got paid a little extra per hour. We always have a charge nurse, although it is usually a nurse who also has her/his own patients too. Night shift has a dedicated charge nurse. They say they will have the same on days sometime soon. Med-Surg is actually offered as a good place to start for new grads here.
But I am happy you found your "perfect" job. I think that is the hardest thing to do. Congrats!!

Wow, what an orientation. As a new grad I was oriented to the medical floor for about 2 months, took a full load on day 2, with my preceptor taking a smoking break every 2 hours. This is on the night shift, so the patient load is usually 8-9. This is without a HUC as well, which translates into the RN doing all the paperwork and assembling the charts for new admits. When going off of orientation, I asked if I'd have help if I needed it, and was assured I would. Half the time there is no in house supervisor. My goodness, was I gullible. I don't mind the medical floor, but do get frustrated with the patient load. If you get just a couple who take a turn for the worse, we all suffer (patients and nurse). I've signed an agreement to work here for 3 years, at this point I'm not sure I'll stay. Every area of nursing has it's problems. Hard to know if the grass is greener until you actually get to the other side of the fence, then it's too late. It's nice to here about a fantastic start to nursing in a facility that promotes it! Sincerely, Anna