When I went to nursing school, I knew I didn't want to be a floor nurse. I had little interest in med surg. Now when I did my clinicals, and most were med surg, I enjoyed them for the most part. I like taking care of people. I don't mind the tasks. I have no problem cleaning up people, helping them to the bathroom or to eat. I like talking with and educating patients and family. I don't even mind the rudeness. But I can't stand being understaffed. High patient to nurse ratios. Very acute patients and little help from charge nurses or docs.
I worked in a SNF full time for 6 months, and still do PRN work because I love the residents. And then I took a med surg position to get my foot in the door at the hospital. I have been doing this for almost 5 months and I'm just not sure I can make it a year. There has been such turnover. We are constantly pushed to discharge patients and do more admits. Its very task oriented, and I don't believe I am giving the best care that I should be giving. And still being a newer nurse, I'm afraid of missing something and a patient getting hurt. Plus I am seriously getting burned out. I work nights (which I like the flow better, but it is still quite crazy with half the staff and a higher patient load).
With how rough it is, and knowing that I am not passionate about floor nursing, I'm wondering if I can/should look for another job. Now I can't search within my hospital system because you need to be in your 1st job for a year before transferring. Which I completely get. Should I just suck it up for another 7 months (at least) and try to apply elsewhere in the hospital. After all, I have worked hard to get where I am. Or can I start applying at other hospitals? Would they even consider me? I don't want to be someone who jumps jobs every few months. I want to find my home and stay there. Anyone else able to either not work med surg out of school or only do it a few months before landing a job that is a better fit?
For reference, the areas I am and have been interested in since before school is OR (including periop where I did my senior practicum) or WIS (including NICU). I just feel like those areas are so specialized and so unlike med surg that I wonder how much med surg (besides time management) is really helping me.
It's possible to skip the year of Med Surg, I think Med Surg would be great experience and great area of its own but it doesn't have to be a stepping stone. it's a position that people like or dislike just like any other. As new grads, a friend of mine got hired in the OR and I got hired into the ED. I knew the ED was what I wanted so I applied to positions that hired new grad nurses for ED. I'm almost at my year and though it has been been a bit hard to adjust from school to the pace of ED I feel like I made a great choice.
I agree , I started on med -surg and still work on med -surg. I would advise that new grad should go for the specialities they want .
I started on a cardiac step-down because I knew I did not want gen med/med-surg. Granted, we aren't treated like a true step-down but at least its a specialty I enjoy and love. So I would say no, you do not need to start in med-surg. Find a specialty you enjoy and go for it.
I graduated in 2008, when no one wanted to hire new grads. After a 10-month job search and a 250-mile move, I worked in assisted living for a year, then 6 horrible weeks in Nursing Home Hell, then 7 years in home health, with some flu clinics and a few months at a prison.
I'm now back in assisted living. I'd still like to work in Med Surg, but with no BSN and no hospital experience, no hospital in the area will hire me.
Specializes in Medical Surgical, Postpartum, Derm/Allergy, Hemonc.
I did a year of med surg because i could not find a women's health job. i knew med surg would not be my thing, but it was good experience. I took time off to start my family and now im looking for a women's health job. I won' t settle for med surg this time around. Go straight into the specialty you want if you can.
Is your nursing license at risk every day? Or are you just uncomfortable? If I had it to do over again, I *might* have transferred to Med-surg for the remainder of the year. I would be more marketable.
Best of luck.
No, its definitely not like that. I do think there are nights when I have an unsafe load (I think many nurses feel that way), but I wouldn't say my license is on the line.
I think 6 months of SNF and then 5 months of Med/Surg makes you look like a unattractive candidate for your next job.
I've worked Med/Surg but not straight out of school. I started in LTC. I've worked in different aspects of nursing, always sticking with jobs for awhile.
My advice is to stay where you are for a couple of years at least.
Thank you. That's exactly what I was thinking. But I think I needed to hear it.
I started out in NICU as a new grad. Getting a year of Adult Med/Surg experience first would have done very little for me. I was fortunate to go straight to the specialty that I wanted from the beginning.
That's incredible. NICUs around here will not hire you without experience. Some require 6 months of NICU experience, which is frustrating, because how can I get experience if I can't get hired anywhere in a NICU?
I would stick it out for a year, so that you don't burn bridges at your hospital. I started in med-surg and transferred to the OR at my hospital after 2 years on the med-surg floor (I didn't care for the culture either). Does the hospital you work in have an OR nurse residency program and hire nurses with no OR experience? If so, I would contact the OR educator in a few months and ask to shadow for a few hours in the OR. Make that contact, ask about when they run those residency programs. At my hospital, it's 2-3 times a year. And the time you spend on med-surg will help you in the OR. Where I work, many of the OR nurses have spent their entire career there and have tunnel vision when it comes to patient care. I feel like I am always walking into work and noticing things that others have missed, that would have been first and foremost in a floor nurse's mind. Good luck!
No, I work at a pretty small hospital. They don't offer an OR residency.
I went straight to the OR and never looked back. It's what I wanted and I had a chance so it worked out great for me. (I did work as a nurse tech for 1.5 years while in school on a post surgical floor. )
I can truly say that had I done a year in med surg, I probably wouldn't be a nurse today. I want no part of it and I'm sure I would not have been able to handle it. I don't know how floor nurses do it.
I am definitely afraid of burning out and leaving nursing all together if I have to stay on Med Surg for a long time.
Nope, I started in NICU as a new grad and did a 4.5 month residency there. I don't think that med-surg would have helped me in the slightest as NICU is such a different beast.
I did, however, work as a CNA in a nursing home for 2 years and on a cardiac floor for another 3. This did help me with prioritization skills and made me sure that I'd never want to work in med-surg as a nurse.
started in psych for 9 months, then moved to acute rehab with a mindset that I'll do rehab for at least a year then would go for med surg. Unfortunately only lasted 8 months in an acute rehab hospital.. the past 8 months is an eye opener that I'm not cut out for floor nursing. Management is nasty, trying to find the scapegoat.. all incidents reports turned into punitive.. I love patient care, but I hate working weekends too..
So I've decided to do some soul-searching.. I quit the acute rehab job without securing another job. That's how stressed out I was.
Now I'm still unemployed, and applying only for positions that I desire and thinking of making passive income...
I have some regrets, but God is good and He's the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
johsonmichelle
527 Posts
I agree , I started on med -surg and still work on med -surg. I would advise that new grad should go for the specialities they want .