What is Med/Surge?

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I'm assuming that all future classes will build off of Fundamentals, but is there something more specific with med/surge?

Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
I know our M/S book is scary/fun (Lewis, Heitkemmper, et al). We read a bit for fundamentals but the meat of it will be for med/surg

You know I am not a text book reader, it is so hard for me and up until this advanced med/surg class I never used the text books. Our book is Medical-Surgical Nursing- Assesment and management of Clinical Problems and it's by Lewis, Heitkemmper and a few others as well. Wonder if it's the same book, anyway, I have to say, it's pretty good. This is the first text book I can actually read and stay interested in. Lots of good information.

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Med/Surg deals with a lot of the Pathophysiology of the diseases and how your nursing care incorporates into that. At least that is how I have seen it.

They call our courses acute care and complex care. Acute care is next semester. Hopefully it'll be interesting. Foundations sure wasn't.

We had a three hour pharmacology course that was probably the best this semester followed by health assessment. Sadly, it wasn't really more in depth than what we did in paramedic school. Geriatrics was mindnumbingly boring. Sorry if you're reading this teachers, but it's true.

Pathophysiology along with acute care next semester ought to make things interesting. Add in mental health for some interesting ambiguity, and it might be a good spring.

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Specializes in Med surg.
Med/surg = fluids and electrolytes.

Hahahaaa!!!! I was thinking the same thing......and DB&C (deep breath and cough) ......hahahaaaaa

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very interesting. I'm totally a newbie when it comes to nursing, lol I just got into a program by the skin of my teeth. I was always wondering what med/surg was, and why so many people do not like to pursue it, and why it was sort of a "entry level nursing job for new grads." I love patho and problem solving. Now I'm really looking forward to it when we get there!

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
They call our courses acute care and complex care. Acute care is next semester. Hopefully it'll be interesting. Foundations sure wasn't.

I have found Med/Surg really interesting, for some reason this semester (third for me and our advanced med/surg class and advanced pharm) things have really seem to come together with class and clinical and pharm. It's like a lot of AH-HA moments.

The Fundamentals class seemed to me like a lot of common sense type stuff and a snoozefest in the classroom. I did really well in that class with no effort. Med-surg has definitely challenged me more and I have really enjoyed it. We had a great med/surg teacher that is retiring now and it will be a great loss to our school. He had a great way of teaching.

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Med/surg = fluids and electrolytes.

Good. That was probably the best chapter in the book. The more science the better. The more nursing process the..... :rolleyes:

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Specializes in Med surg.

I've had only 7 weeks of med surg, followed by my 7 weeks of maternity. I went into medsurg kicking and screaming, but I find myself not hardly being able to wait for the next rotation to begin. I have learned so much....IV's, meds, surgical procedures....all stuff you will need no matter what specialty you want to pursue.

For me...medsurg has "put all the pieces together" for me. Everything makes sense.

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I have found Med/Surg really interesting, for some reason this semester (third for me and our advanced med/surg class and advanced pharm) things have really seem to come together with class and clinical and pharm. It's like a lot of AH-HA moments.

The Fundamentals class seemed to me like a lot of common sense type stuff and a snoozefest in the classroom. I did really well in that class with no effort. Med-surg has definitely challenged me more and I have really enjoyed it. We had a great med/surg teacher that is retiring now and it will be a great loss to our school. He had a great way of teaching.

Yep, I was the same way. I didn't put in anywhere near the time that others put in.

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
very interesting. I'm totally a newbie when it comes to nursing, lol I just got into a program by the skin of my teeth. I was always wondering what med/surg was, and why so many people do not like to pursue it, and why it was sort of a "entry level nursing job for new grads." I love patho and problem solving. Now I'm really looking forward to it when we get there!

I think the reason no body wants to work in that area is it's really demanding work. You have all kinds of patients, with all kinds of things going on and it's not consistent if that makes sense. At one of the hospitals I was at we had Medical floor which was big and Med/Surg floor which was smaller and than Surgical wing. Med/surg wing would basically have medical and surgical overflow. Anyway, I really enjoyed my time on the medical floor. Everyone in my class right off the bat really wanted the specialized areas, don't get me wrong, I have a strong desire to go to the ED especially after getting to go there in clinicals a couple times, but having a strong foundation will be a big part of your nursing career I feel and also give you the ability to branch out in other directions if you later want to. Whereas if you start in something specialized, it might be harder to go to another area. In both my Med/Surg clnical semesters so far I have put Medical or Med/Surg as my number one choice to start for clinicals.

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my med/surg classes focused on specific body systems and the diseases that affect them. We went through 4 different med/surg classes each one consisted of a few different systems ie. Cardiac, neuro, respiratory, musculoskeletal and so forth. Its more a narrow focus of the diseases of each body system and pathophysiology of them and how as a nurse to treat and teach patients. good luck!

This is how ours works as well. We have three semesters though, not four.

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So what do LPNs take? You'd think that would've been covered in our Foundations class particularly since they emphasized delegation so much, yet the instructional staff never covered LPNs and CNAs and their roles. I refused to ask, lol. It should just be understood to be covered.

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Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
So what do LPNs take? You'd think that would've been covered in our Foundations class particularly since they emphasized delegation so much, yet the instructional staff never covered LPNs and CNAs and their roles. I refused to ask, lol. It should just be understood to be covered.

Do you mean as far as Med/Surg?? In our program after the first year you can be eligible for LPN boards. (they do have to do this short transition class with clinicals in LTC, Hospice and I think community health) So the med/surg they would have got in my program was a basic level med/surg class we do 2nd semester and med/surg clnicals. We had a different book that was focused on LPN Med/Surg. Third semester and 4th semester we changed books and got into the advanced med/surg.

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