Why is Med-Surg so hated?

Specialties Med-Surg

Updated:   Published

Whenever I have told a fellow newer grad that I want to work in a hospital, they ask 'where?' And I say 'probably Med-Surg' and then they crinkle their nose. I just want to get my start in acute care and heard that's a good place to start. One of this area's hospital groups seems to have such a hard time hanging on to RNs willing to work in Med-Surg, that they will pay *experienced* RNs several dollars more per hour than in more sought after specialties. Is Med -Surg really so terrible or different from other acute care floors?

It is so hard because you have to know and do everything! From NG tubes to Copd to insulin/heparin drips to strokes to etoh withdraw to central line care to heart cath, just SO much to know. And you have to do YOUR job of nursing, but you are also responsible for everyone else's job too. I got in trouble not long ago because the dr ordered physical DVt prevention but not heparin. This was my fault because on admission, I filled out a DVt risk form that showed the pt was at risk. Prior to that I was in trouble because an X-ray had been ordered 2 days ago on a pt and it still hadn't been done. (The other nurses involved were in trouble as well). I think this is the hardest part of MS for me, doing all that I have to do, plus the drs job, plus radiology, plus dietary, etc. it makes for an extremely busy day!!

*I would like to note though, everyone told me I could do my year in MS and go anywhere, but now it's at least 2 years, sometimes more. If you are stuck in MS for now, talk to the manager of the floor you like, they will often let you pick up shifts on their floor without hiring you and this will look fantastic on your resume!!

1 Votes
Specializes in ICU / PCU / Telemetry / Oncology.
mitral said:
*I would like to note though, everyone told me I could do my year in MS and go anywhere, but now it's at least 2 years, sometimes more. If you are stuck in MS for now, talk to the manager of the floor you like, they will often let you pick up shifts on their floor without hiring you and this will look fantastic on your resume!!

How is that possible to do if you want to transition to a floor that requires higher skills than med surg, like ICU or ER? You cant just pick up shifts, probably the best you can do is shadow and network with the NM.

Sent from my iPad using allnurses

1 Votes
cs1031rn said:
Everyone wants to start in their speciality. Work a med-surg floor for a couple of years though and you'll be able to go anywhere!

no offense but I sometimes want to rob the house of the professor who gave me that advice (jkjk). But really no offense to you, I could put that as one of top 3 worst advices to give to new grads. personal exp. I had chance to go to IMC or ICU, but b/c of what my prof told me, I decided to work at MS, what the heck right? The chances of burnout and hating nursing out the gut is exponentially high in MS floors, and like others said, many ER, ICU, OR and other specialty require 2yrs if not more for transition. So imagine being stuck at floor and you hate your life for it; what a misery!!!! I was lucky enough to run from MS after 1yr to ER, but jumping salmon, if I was still working in that miserable MS, I would probably drive into a pole for couple months admission at an ICU to avoid work.

in short, that's been the worst advice in my nursing career ?

1 Votes
Specializes in Certified Med/Surg tele, and other stuff.
tarotale said:
no offense but I sometimes want to rob the house of the professor who gave me that advice (jkjk). But really no offense to you, I could put that as one of top 3 worst advices to give to new grads. personal exp. I had chance to go to IMC or ICU, but b/c of what my prof told me, I decided to work at MS, what the heck right? The chances of burnout and hating nursing out the gut is exponentially high in MS floors, and like others said, many ER, ICU, OR and other specialty require 2yrs if not more for transition. So imagine being stuck at floor and you hate your life for it; what a misery!!!! I was lucky enough to run from MS after 1yr to ER, but jumping salmon, if I was still working in that miserable MS, I would probably drive into a pole for couple months admission at an ICU to avoid work.

in short, that's been the worst advice in my nursing career ?

Nursing research shows no higher burn out in m/s. ;)

1 Votes
Paco-RN said:
This is starting to become antiquated advice I fear. Lots of job announcements I have seen for specialized nursing units want specific experience in the specialty and med-surg experience does not seem to necessarily equate. ER wants ER experience, L&D wants L&D experience, ICU wants ICU or critical care experience, etc. Almost feels like if you start out in med-surg you risk getting stuck there. Just saying this because I have tried several times to transition to these kind of jobs with med-surg tele experience, have a great interview only to have someone with specialty experience grab the job. Where then can I get the experience if not given the chance? I will keep trying though, cant give up.

Sent from my iPad using allnurses

I believe this is the case in many places, especially if you live where jobs are hard to come by. I know people who've been told to go to the other local hospital that does higher into ER and work for two years and then come back

1 Votes
tarotale said:
no offense but I sometimes want to rob the house of the professor who gave me that advice (jkjk). But really no offense to you, I could put that as one of top 3 worst advices to give to new grads. personal exp. I had chance to go to IMC or ICU, but b/c of what my prof told me, I decided to work at MS, what the heck right? The chances of burnout and hating nursing out the gut is exponentially high in MS floors, and like others said, many ER, ICU, OR and other specialty require 2yrs if not more for transition. So imagine being stuck at floor and you hate your life for it; what a misery!!!! I was lucky enough to run from MS after 1yr to ER, but jumping salmon, if I was still working in that miserable MS, I would probably drive into a pole for couple months admission at an ICU to avoid work.

in short, that's been the worst advice in my nursing career ?

In my experience managers in other departments want MS experience. There's a lot to learn in MS and it's a great place to develop skills. If you jump right in to a speciality you only develop skills for that speciality and then you're stuck. I learned that from experience. I went right into dialysis after RN school and I couldn't get out of it because dialysis was my only experience.

1 Votes
cs1031rn said:
In my experience managers in other departments want MS experience. There's a lot to learn in MS and it's a great place to develop skills. If you jump right in to a speciality you only develop skills for that speciality and then you're stuck. I learned that from experience. I went right into dialysis after RN school and I couldn't get out of it because dialysis was my only experience.

I get what you're saying, yes there are things to learn in MS, but in my exp so far, there are vast more to learn in specialties as well, and if someone wants to go to ER or ICU in first place, why not go there and learn the art of that specialty? As I proposed, in my own exp, I pretty much realize that most of things I learned at floor doesn't really help much in ER. Sure I learned how to prime tubings, drug admin, etc but the same things you can learn in specialty as a GN.

Also a lot of hospitals around my area that hire at ER actually want either GN or nurses with ER exp stating they don't want the new hire to have "bad floor habits" which doesn't make a darn sense, but here here, I am doing okay ?

1 Votes
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
VANurse2010 said:
Bedside sucks no matter where you are. It's just varying degrees of the same BS. Do what you want.

What a sucky attitude.

Like anything else, you get about as much out of your career as you put into it, and if you decide that it sucks from the getgo, you'll never be happy. Bedside nursing isn't for everyone, but to say it "sucks" is just plain wrong.

1 Votes
Specializes in Certified Med/Surg tele, and other stuff.
Ruby Vee said:
What a sucky attitude.

Like anything else, you get about as much out of your career as you put into it, and if you decide that it sucks from the getgo, you'll never be happy. Bedside nursing isn't for everyone, but to say it "sucks" is just plain wrong.

Very true. If one is disengaged in their speciality, be it Med/Surg or ED, they will be very unhappy and so will their patients.

Some of my most memorable moments were at the bedside and those moments made me the nurse that I am today.

1 Votes
tokmom said:
Very true. If one is disengaged in their speciality, be it Med/Surg or ED, they will be very unhappy and so will their patients.

Some of my most memorable moments were at the bedside and those moments made me the nurse that I am today.

I don't blame the original poster. Lots of people hate bedside, me included. The bs of bedside she mentioned is definitely there and can't deny it. Some people can tolerate the bs. Others can't stand it which makes us hate bedside.

2 Votes
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
tarotale said:
I don't blame the original poster. Lots of people hate bedside, me included. The bs of bedside she mentioned is definitely there and can't deny it. Some people can tolerate the bs. Others can't stand it which makes us hate bedside.

The OP isn't the one who said she hated bedside nursing. In fact, it seems like the OP cannot understand why others seem to hate Med/Surg so much. VAnurse2010 is the one with the horrible attitude about bedside nursing.

If you've decided that you hate bedside nursing and won't even TRY to find aspects of the job that you like and enjoy, if you just concentrate on how much "it all sucks", then you're not GOING to find any positive aspects to the job, and you'll be miserable. You tend to find what you're looking for, and if all you look for is negative, that's all you'll find. It's a miserable attitude, and it's one destined to make you even more miserable.

I once hated bedside nursing, too. Then I decided that since I had to do it to support my family, until something "better" came along, then I'd make up my mind to find aspects of it that I enjoyed. And wouldn't you know it -- when something "better" did come along, I was enjoying the bedside so much I didn't want to leave.

2 Votes
Specializes in Certified Med/Surg tele, and other stuff.
tarotale said:
I don't blame the original poster. Lots of people hate bedside, me included. The bs of bedside she mentioned is definitely there and can't deny it. Some people can tolerate the bs. Others can't stand it which makes us hate bedside.

Like there isn't BS in management? I'm a fence sitter job wise, so I see both sides. There is crap everywhere in every specialty and job role.

1 Votes
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