Nursing Careers: Medical - Surgical

If you are entering the nursing profession, you may find yourself working on a med-surg floor. A medical surgical floor is a combination of general medical patients and surgical patients. You will see a variety of patients and diseases on this type of floor. Read on to find out more about med-surg nursing.

If you work in a decent sized hospital, the medical surgical floor will consist of patients that have chronic health problems such as diabetes, lung problems and other conditions. You will also take care of acute problems such as pneumonia, pancreatitis, cellulitis and many other 

conditions. The surgery part can consist of post op patients that are recovering from hysterectomies, gallbladder surgery, bowel surgery and a host of other surgeries. If you want something really challenging, work in a small community or rural hospital and have telemetry, pediatrics and everything else that can be dumped onto the med-surg floor.

Med -surg nursing has always been considered the starting point for fresh grads to get their feet wet before they move on to a specialty such as labor and delivery, emergency room, psychiatric nursing or surgery. But as of late, med -surg has been considered a specialty of their own. You can now obtain a certification in med- surg and have the title of certified med- surg nurse. This allows you to display the title CMSRN after your name and shows that you have taken that extra step to hone your diagnostic and nursing skills that are needed on a busy med surg unit.

Anyone that has graduated from nursing school and passed the NCLEX exam can work on a med surg unit. The starting salary for a new grad on a med surg unit is $30,000 - $40,000. The pay will depend on years of experience and geographical area. Some facilities will pay more for a higher level of education, but this is not always the case.

Med -surg nursing is very challenging and sometimes very frustrating. The patients that are being placed on the med surg floor are higher levels of care than before. Staff cutbacks in hospitals are resulting in a higher patient load for med surg nurses. It takes a lot of creativity and organizational skills to work on a med -surg floor.

Med- surg nursing jobs will always be around. There is usually a high turnover rate on the med -surg floor due to burnout and nurses leaving for other specialties. If you are a person who thrives on variety and hard work, then med -surg nursing may be right for you.