I'm a nursing student and trying to decide which specialty to choose for my preceptorship (I have to turn in my choice on March 28th). I have searched through the posts and read the current discussions, and have read all the recommendations to do med-surg. But what exactly is it about med-surg that makes everyone recommend going into that specialty? I did my med-surg clinical last semester, and really didn't like it much. I don't know if I could stand it for a year since I could barely stand it once a week for 4 months! So why exactly do so many people recommend med-surg? Please be specific, it'll help me make a decision :)
I'm so confused! Some people say "forget med-surg, do what you want." Others say that going into med-surg is the best way to go, but don't say much about why. The other problem is that I've only done med-surg and pediatrics so far, and won't start my maternity rotation until afterthe deadline to turn in my specialty choice, so I have to decide before being exposed to all the other areas of nursing!
Looking forward to hearing from you all. Thanks in advance!
When I was a Navy corpsman, I worked both on a medical floor and a med/surg ICU. The skills were so completely different I was amazed!!
I felt like a huge loser on the floor because of the sheer amount of patients, work and running. My organizational skills were always challenged, and I constantly felt behind the ball. But in ICU, it was a different story. I loved working 1:1 with patients, being truly at the bedside, and being exposed to the higher tech world of medicine. The nurses were cooler, too ....
And if you decide you can't stand your speciality, you can change and life will go on. Good luck. It's a hard choice.
I talked with a NICU manager for a paper I had to do. I asked her about this and she told me if I wanted to be a NICU nurse then go and be a NICU nurse. she said she would rather have me com in right out of school than have me work in med-surg and than come to the NICU. She told me she often finds it harder to train someone from another unti than a new grad. So i am taking her advice and knocking on her door when i grauate!!!
Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.
I DID want to say:
My hat is off to med-surg nurses everywhere. You have my endless respect for your amazing knowledge base and quick-thinking-on-your-feet skills. I just want people to understand, med-surg IS a specialty itself. An amazingly complicated one.
I talked with a NICU manager for a paper I had to do. I asked her about this and she told me if I wanted to be a NICU nurse then go and be a NICU nurse. she said she would rather have me com in right out of school than have me work in med-surg and than come to the NICU. She told me she often finds it harder to train someone from another unti than a new grad. So i am taking her advice and knocking on her door when i grauate!!!
Kris
Even though it's an opinion of just one Nurse Manager, this is a very good evidence based post!!
i, too, agree with the folks that have said that if you have something in mind, get to it. i did not have the option when i was in nursing school. it was icu or med/surg...that's it. since i knew i was going into a big teaching school's or when i graduated, i chose the icu for my preceptorship. it was an invaluable experience for many reasons, but there were wasted moments, too.
anymore, nursing is becoming extremely specialized, and the education you receive in those specialties is so important, and often non-transferable to other specialties. i begrudge no one the props for being a nurse, no matter what the specialty. there is hard work to be done in every specialty. med/surg does not carry over to everything else. while there are subtle similarities between specialties, and nursing itself has a core of information that holds true for all specialties, i no longer consider med/surg to be the sacred cow for starting a career.
Even though the type of nursing we do in med/surg doesn't carry over into other specialties, the truth is the patients carry their other med/surg problems with them into the specialty floors. I'm not just talking about the medicine boarder, but the older our patients get, the more interesting, detailed and multi-system their health histories become. :chuckle
I've worked med/surg for the better part of the last ten years. Yes its challenging and hard to "manage your time" when you have 8-10 patients with different problems - no doubt about it. On the bright side - after getting used to med/surg, when you get floated to a specialty unit you will often find you have a lot of extra time on your hands.
Yes, it can be overwhelming to have to know so much about so many different disease entities and all the stuff that goes with them. However, this knowledge can help you to differentiate between appropriate treatment plans/meds for the non-specialty problems, it can help you to recognize a problem that might not be related to their original diagnosis/procedure (specialty problem). And as we all know knowledge is power.
I've had to care for oncology patients because there was no room for them on the onco floor. I've had to differentiate DKA from COPD exacerbation, MI from PE, and figure out the cause of mental status changes for neuro-surg patients who seemed okay to the prior shift. So many things will set off a stable diabetic's blood sugar, or affect the mental status of almost any aged patient. Knowing the difference between Keppra and Cipro (the days of handwritten medexes, gratefully are behind me) prevented a med error for a neuro patient who needed his anti-seizure med and not an antibiotic.
The reason med/surg had been recommended in the past was that it provided the new nurse with a background in almost every kind of medical or surgical care/need/treatment. The skill sets between most adult units used to be limited to a slightly different focus in assessments, a few different drugs/treatment protocol. This has changed with advancing technology, and improvements in science and evidence based practice.
The days of anyone believing a nurse is a nurse is a nurse thankfully are long gone (mostly/hopefully ). If you know what you want, as far as choosing a specialty, then go for it. If you're not sure or you value diversity then check out med/surg. Med/surg nursing, like other specialties has its own rewards. I think variety is the spice of life - so I'd still choose med/surg.
I agree with those who say to go for what you really want. I got sidetracked away from Peds right after school and it took 12 years to get back to where my heart really is. Those other areas were by no means a waste. I still use past experience in unexpected ways, but wish I had started out in Peds from beginning and would now have that much more of the right kind of experience.
). If you know what you want, as far as choosing a specialty, then go for it. If you're not sure or you value diversity then check out med/surg. Med/surg nursing, like other specialties has its own rewards. I think variety is the spice of life - so I'd still choose med/surg.
FrumDoula
149 Posts
When I was a Navy corpsman, I worked both on a medical floor and a med/surg ICU. The skills were so completely different I was amazed!!
I felt like a huge loser on the floor because of the sheer amount of patients, work and running. My organizational skills were always challenged, and I constantly felt behind the ball. But in ICU, it was a different story. I loved working 1:1 with patients, being truly at the bedside, and being exposed to the higher tech world of medicine. The nurses were cooler, too ....
And if you decide you can't stand your speciality, you can change and life will go on. Good luck. It's a hard choice.
Alison