Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Medical/Surgical Nursing

This is a great area of nursing to begin your career. Nurses who work on medical-surgical units have the opportunity to interact with and care for patients with a wide variety of clinical conditions. Some patients on medical-surgical units are recovering from surgeries. Others may be hospitalized for an acute condition, and others may be in the final stages of a progressive and chronic disease. Some health care facilities have separate medical and surgical units dedicated to treating patients with like ailments; such as oncology, orthopedic, neurology and pulmonary units to name a few. Some smaller facilities may mix a variety of medical and surgical patients together on the same unit.

Working on a medical or surgical unit provides you the opportunity to fine-tune your nursing skills. It’s a great place to gain experience in organizing and coordinating a patient’s care, working with patients suffering from a variety of ailments, and improving your basic nursing skills.

Nurses on medical and surgical units work closely with professionals from other disciplines in patient assessment including, the development and implementation of individualized plans of care, recovery planning, patient and family education, and discharge planning.

Many nurses begin their careers on a medical or surgical unit and use the experience to help them decide whether they might like to specialize in a particular area of nursing.

Source : http://www.futuresinnursing.org/planning/spotlight/medical.shtml

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