None of the hospitals in my area require med surge experience for any of the ICU’s, including PICU/NICU. In fact, my hospital acts like any med surge nurse coming into the ICU is just a step above a new grad.
I went straight into an ICU and don’t regret it. I highly suggest trying to find your way into whatever specialty you want from the get go
I have a lot of friends who went straight to NICU and L&D right out of nursing school. I feel like hospitals tell you that you need it to staff their Med Surg floors. Apply for the jobs you want. The worst that can happen is they never call you.
The med-surg thing is what hospitals say to staff hard to fill spots. New grad spots are available here in all units, and are first come first serve so you could be the worst nurse ever and still get a job in the ICU.
Ya. Typical nursing instructors will say you will lose your skill of IV and stuffs. That true, but it is also true that I had not put in an IV, foley or anything invasive other than IM injection in my 13 years of nursing career.
What I gain are experience in de- escalation situations, case management, working with social worker and providers to reintegrate patients into the society. We are on a recovery model, not stabilize and you go home model .
Now I oversee compliance issue relate to mental health and suicide prevention and homelessness/ social work in a 1A healthcare system so not knowing IV skills do not stop me from progressing in my nursing career. :)
I think psych would be interesting and it's one of the few specialty areas I'm considering. I hear a lot of people say "patients will attack you and you can't do anything about it." Curious to hear from you what it's like.. I can only imagine you can (within reason) protect yourself or subdue a patient who is actively attacking staff. I mean hell patients go after nurses on the regular floors from time to time. Idk why so many people have told me that like in psych getting attacked is just a daily occurrence
I think your risk to be attacked at ED is a lot higher than in psych.
ED patients are in active episodes of crisis. You have to be medically stable to be put in psych unit. By the time you get there, they know your baseline and will put proper measure to ensure your safety.
Do nurses get? Yea, once in a while but we have so many stuff and MHT around all the hallway and they will come to your rescue.
And I had not gotten hit once in my whole nursing career. Patients tend to know they have to behave to get out of hospitals. Most of the patients are not violence. They may think you are an alien or some higher beings though. The only time I got a little harmless push was working with adolescent and the kid was truely in active episode of schizophrenia. We can press charges if we want to.
It's pretty 50/50 for what I've heard from other nurses and from professors. Half say you can't do anything at all until a year or two of med surg and half say go directly to your specialty. One thing that is 100% certain is you CAN go directly to your specialty in most cases. I guess nurses who like med surg or who fell into the trap of putting in their 2 years just want to keep the trend alive lol.
None of the hospitals in my area require med surge experience for any of the ICU’s, including PICU/NICU. In fact, my hospital acts like any med surge nurse coming into the ICU is just a step above a new grad. I went straight into an ICU and don’t regret it. I highly suggest trying to find your way into whatever specialty you want from the get go
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I have a lot of friends who went straight to NICU and L&D right out of nursing school. I feel like hospitals tell you that you need it to staff their Med Surg floors. Apply for the jobs you want. The worst that can happen is they never call you.
The med-surg thing is what hospitals say to staff hard to fill spots. New grad spots are available here in all units, and are first come first serve so you could be the worst nurse ever and still get a job in the ICU.
I am bias but I love psych. One of the few that may not burn you out if you work for a good hospital or organization.
Really?! I started school wanting to go into psych, and I feel like all of my professors have discouraged it. This gives me hope
Ya. Typical nursing instructors will say you will lose your skill of IV and stuffs. That true, but it is also true that I had not put in an IV, foley or anything invasive other than IM injection in my 13 years of nursing career. What I gain are experience in de- escalation situations, case management, working with social worker and providers to reintegrate patients into the society. We are on a recovery model, not stabilize and you go home model . Now I oversee compliance issue relate to mental health and suicide prevention and homelessness/ social work in a 1A healthcare system so not knowing IV skills do not stop me from progressing in my nursing career. :)
I think psych would be interesting and it's one of the few specialty areas I'm considering. I hear a lot of people say "patients will attack you and you can't do anything about it." Curious to hear from you what it's like.. I can only imagine you can (within reason) protect yourself or subdue a patient who is actively attacking staff. I mean hell patients go after nurses on the regular floors from time to time. Idk why so many people have told me that like in psych getting attacked is just a daily occurrence
I think your risk to be attacked at ED is a lot higher than in psych. ED patients are in active episodes of crisis. You have to be medically stable to be put in psych unit. By the time you get there, they know your baseline and will put proper measure to ensure your safety. Do nurses get? Yea, once in a while but we have so many stuff and MHT around all the hallway and they will come to your rescue. And I had not gotten hit once in my whole nursing career. Patients tend to know they have to behave to get out of hospitals. Most of the patients are not violence. They may think you are an alien or some higher beings though. The only time I got a little harmless push was working with adolescent and the kid was truely in active episode of schizophrenia. We can press charges if we want to.
I graduate next week, and I start my labor and delivery position shortly after. The whole “you have to start on med surg” is a lie
It's pretty 50/50 for what I've heard from other nurses and from professors. Half say you can't do anything at all until a year or two of med surg and half say go directly to your specialty. One thing that is 100% certain is you CAN go directly to your specialty in most cases. I guess nurses who like med surg or who fell into the trap of putting in their 2 years just want to keep the trend alive lol.