Where should I start?

[nurse_shane]

I am a student who will be graduating in May. I just finished my preceptorship and have been pre-hired on a med/surg unit. My real interest is cardiac nursing. Am I doing the right thing by getting experience on a med/surg unit while working towards a career in Cardiac or should I just try to jump right in?

[wellnessrn]

Med/surg experience is INVALUABLE, especially as a new grad. You will need to learn medications, diseases, and how to organize yourself. It will give you a solid background, as cardiac patients also have many other ailments (diabetes, strokes, renal failure, etc etc). I suggest you work med/surg at least 6 months, then start looking for telemetry or ICU jobs; take EKG classes, ACLS, etc when you feel able, to give you an edge. I graduated almost 20 years ago, and started in Med/Surg at a really small hospital. As soon as an ICU job came open, I went for it. My manager there was super- she threw me right into classes and ACLS, so I learned alot. After that I moved, and went into an open heart unit; then I moved again to a smaller hospital and worked about 13 years in the ICU. Now I do Cardiac Rehab and stress testing and LOVE it! But all those years of experience are, like I said, INVALUABLE. Good luck to you!! Hope this helps!

[sadstudent]

I'm a new grad taking boards on March 10th. I was just offered a job on a cardiac tele floor with an amazing group of nurses, great pay and at an impressive hospital and don't want it. Am I crazy? I want a med-surg unit so that I have a broad range of information because my main goal is to work abroad not specialize in caridac.

[Nightrn16]

I never ever thought I'd go into cardiac nursing. I too wanted a med/surg right after college. Heck, the heart was the hardest part of nursing school for me. I had the worst time with it. But, I started on a cardiac floor. I have enjoyed the experience. We do get the med/surg stuff too (b/c it tends to go together), but with me starting where I did, I learned first about the heart, which lead to the kidneys .. lungs .. stuff like that.

Plus, one of the benefits of starting on a tele floor .. if you do transfer to a regular med/surg floor, with te background of heart stuff, you could be the first to recognize and MI, CHF .. and the like. I know I tend to pay more attention to stuff like that in people.

Just my 2.5 cents worth