[JSwan]

Wow, this site is amazing. What a supportive, encouraging and informative community!

This is my first time being a member of a discussion forum. I am in an accelerated nursing program in the midwest. I have six months to go until I get my BSN, after which I want to work locally for a year before getting into travel nursing. I spoke with an experienced nurse who works at the hospital where I want to apply for a job, and she recommended that I look into a cardiac step-down floor, a post-surgical floor, or a neuro step-down floor. I know I should get good med-surg experience in order to prepare for travel nursing, but I'm not sure which of those floors would be best for gaining that experience. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks so much!

[cougarnurse]

Hi, JSwan! Glad to have you with us.

To me, post surgical sounds like a logical choice, but...that is only MHO. Then again, I also have my BSN, but prefer my LTCers.

Again, welcome to the site, and hope to see many of your posts in the future. Good luck in school.

'Cat'

[JSwan]

Thanks for your reply and welcome, Cat! Does LTC = Long Term Care? I also initially figured a post-surgical floor would be the best option, but then my friend mentioned a couple of times that I could get med-surg experience on the step-down floors too, which was confusing. I guess there must be some overlap. Hmm maybe the question I should have asked is, would it be better to get a little more cardiac monitoring experience, neuro monitoring experience, or post-surgical experience with that med-surg? Hey, that might be a good question for the Travel Nursing threads...I think I'll head over there now! :39:

[cougarnurse]

Originally Posted by JSwan

Thanks for your reply and welcome, Cat! Does LTC = Long Term Care? I also initially figured a post-surgical floor would be the best option, but then my friend mentioned a couple of times that I could get med-surg experience on the step-down floors too, which was confusing. I guess there must be some overlap. Hmm maybe the question I should have asked is, would it be better to get a little more cardiac monitoring experience, neuro monitoring experience, or post-surgical experience with that med-surg? Hey, that might be a good question for the Travel Nursing threads...I think I'll head over there now! :39:

Yep, LTC = Long term Care.

Honestly, I think post surgical sounds interesting; then again, cardiac and neuro helps, also. Tough decision you have.

'Cat'

[SoldierNurse]

:welcome1:

BTW, I'd be more inclined towards Cardiac Step-Down, but I'm biased since I worked a 64-bed Telemetry Floor out of nursing school. I think working Med-Surg Flr out of nursing school is overrated regards to being some type of unwritten requirement to success in the nursing profession.

Good luck in your BSN program. BTW, your correct it ain't always about the grades on those nursing exams. IMHO, pass the NCLEX, then the real learning begins with the key being critical thinking & application.

[nightstar3dp]

Its strange seeing cardiac step-down units, neuro step-down units, post-surgical, orthopedic floors.... etc etc...

I work at a, I think, 114 something bed hospital period where I'm a duel role nurse. Meaning I work in Med-Surg and the ER. Our Hospital has a total of..

6 Emergency Room Beds (2 Trauma, 2 Observation, 1 Cast, and 1 Treatment)
3 Fast Track Rooms
6 Bed ICU
16 Bed Pediatric Unit
36 Bed Medical-Surgical floor

We have other units, but i'm not sure of the bed situations.

Our Medical-Surgical floor is the busiest, of course, of the units because we get every patient you could possibly imagine. Medical-Surgical nurses at our hospital have to know EVERY specialty area because thats what we get.. Ortho, Osteo, GyN, Peds, Psych, Cardiac, Neuro, General Surgery.

They require every new grad nurse at our hospital to at least work a 6 month rotation on our medical-surgical floor to get 'experience'.

[Marie_LPN]

:welcomescroll: