What Is Med Surg Floor

Becoming a medical surgical nurse.

What is med surg floor. As the largest branch of nursing care med surg nursing has the widest variety of potential patients and diagnoses. Shared one med surg lpn who works in a small hospital we only have one floor for med surg so we get a wide variety of patients from myocardial infarction and strokes to post ops and chemotherapy and detox patients. Many nurses continue med surg nursing for the excitement and experience it brings to their career. When nursing was a younger profession the majority of nurses worked in wards performing bedside care and most were classified as medical surgical nurses.

I ve been working on a med surg floor since last may. Some hospitals funnel patients from the er up into the med surg unit so this provides a lot of variety and a guarantee that you ll never experience the same day twice as a med surg. This field is no longer seen as a stepping stone but a specialized science the backbone of a healthcare institution. It is complex.

For starters learning how to operate the ventilator could take up an entire nursing school class. The thins that i do during my shift overnights are taking and charting vital signs change patients that need to be changed answer call bells help patients to and from bathroom emptying foleys drains ng canisters and colostomies measuring and recording them. It s also often the first nursing job and nurse has out of school. The floor mostly consists of surgical patients with medical mixed in.

Currently med surg nurses work in a variety of positions both on the hospital floor and beyond. Med surg nursing requires attention to detail excellent multi tasking skills and a level head under pressure. Med surg nurses share the spark that ignited their passion. This is just not so in the icu.

It can be difficult to keep our sparks burning bright but amsn president robin hertel and some special med surg rns commit to being your spark when you need it. On the floor your vital signs may be taken every few hours rather than being constantly monitored as you would be in the critical care areas. The medical surgical nursing field has progressed from an entry level job position to a unique comprehensive specialty. On a med surg floor you may have iv pumps sequential compression devices telemetry boxes continuous motion machines and other more or less standard equipment of the nursing profession.

Patients on the med surg floor. However i love med surg because it s never boring you just never know what s going to come up to your floor from the er and sometimes you really can make a difference in someone s life. Core curriculum for medical surgical nursing.