What skills should I develop and hone in med/surg?

Been there,done that, ASN, RN · Mar 14

Hone your assessment skills. Do a visual head to toe . What is the patients color, respiratory rate and effort. What is their major complaint? Then you can do a full assessment. You will need IV placement and maybe phlebotomy skills. I was a bedside nurse for 30 years.. never got good at either.

Best of luck... it's a jungle out there.

JKL33 · Mar 15

Use frequently (almost continually) on daily basis and the faster you become good at them the easier your life will be:

Patient assessment, prioritization, professionalism, communication.

Those last two affect everything, whether in terms of communicating with patients, family members, teammates or providers, or in terms of advocating for yourself, how to gain others' respect/avoid poor treatment from others, avoid being messed with by admin/employer, all of it. IMO it is imperative to act like a professional if one wishes to be regarded that way.

Pretty much all hands-on skills a nurse needs to learn can be learned with exposure, time and a little practice. But the things that make or break you are the ones I listed (as far as I'm concerned).

Good luck!

ponderingDNP · Mar 15

You will be introduced to far more than can be listed here or prepared for. Some things are so repetitive and second-nature for med/surg nurses that may be omitted from a 'list'.

The things mentioned by the previous posters are a must. However, as stated, learning to perform them and being able to perform them presents challenges. Depending on your current position, patient assessments can be done with each encounter. Thats excellent practice. Venipuncture, not so much as this requires a specific and justifiable reason.

I say focus on patient assessments as just open yourself up to a wild ride of continuous learning in med/surg.....especially multitasking and PRIORITIZATION.

imaginarymuse, ASN, BSN, LPN, RN · Mar 21

Everyone tells you learn your assessments in school. And even here everyone says assessments. But you can't even begin to grasp what that means. It's literally everything. So yes assessments. And learn to trust what you see and hear. Better to ask and be wrong than be silently right. With a good assessment you can practically nail every diagnosis. Eyes looking funny? Ask. Lungs sound maybe like you hear something? Ask. Heartbeat sound not quite perfect? Ask. Trust it. You don't even have to know what is wrong, you only have to know it's not right. So many seasoned nurses skip the head to toe. Don't do that. Ask when the last bowel movement was, look at their feet, turn them over, look in their mouth. I'm a newer nurse and I have found AAAs, people who have been in the hospital for over two weeks with no bowel movement because everyone just charted "normal for patient", I've found people were blind in one eye, had a stroke, had a dvt. I had the best trainer. She said don't be that nurse, actually do the things. So yes, the assessment, you will be slow at first, you will not be sure, but do it and ask about anything and everything. You could literally save someone's life. And while all the other stuff is very important as well, ultimately, your patient is there to be seen and checked out.