Interested in Becoming a Medical-Surgical Nurse?

As a medical-surgical nurse, you are often caring for patients who are getting ready to have surgery or are recovering from it. But there’s so much more to know.

Jacqueline Savalle, BSN, RN, CMSRN, a staff nurse in Rochester, Minnesota as well as the Emerging Professional Liaison, Board of Directors, for the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses (AMSN) took the time to answer our questions about what it’s like to work as a med-surg nurse and what nurses need to do if they want to pursue this particular career in nursing.

Let’s start by having you explain what a med-surg nurse is and does. Are there various kinds of nurses with different jobs in med-surg? What kind are you? How did you get into it?

According to AMSN’s official description of the specialty, “Medical-surgical nurses provide care to adults with a variety of medical issues or who are preparing for/recovering from surgery. They have a broad knowledge base and are experts in their practice. Medical-surgical nurses have advanced organizational, prioritization, assessment, and communication skills and are leaders in coordinating care among the interprofessional health care team.”

Within med-surg, there are different specialties nurses can pursue. Some specialize in medical and surgical units separately, with other practice areas within those umbrellas. Med-surg nurses can also focus on such areas as cardiac, pulmonary, gastrointestinal, hospice, and neurologic care. Med-surg nurses may also keep medical and surgical together. The specializations available depend on how a facility organizes its units.

Personally, I have specialized in pulmonary, gastrointestinal, and thoracic medicine—meaning I primarily take care of patients requiring hospitalization with ailments in those areas, but not requiring primary surgical interventions. Because we are still a medical unit, we can get any medical general care patients.

I stumbled into this specialty after graduation and have truly found my nursing passion with my pulmonary patients.

As a med-surg nurse, what are your responsibilities?

As a bedside med-surg nurse, my primary responsibility is to care for adults with medical illnesses requiring hospitalization. The practice involves far more than just giving patients their medications. Med-surg nurses actively assess the patient’s status, working collaboratively with physicians, social workers, therapy, and other members of the health care team to achieve the goals of the patient.

A med-surg nurse is also the patient’s primary advocate, ensuring all members of the team are working toward the patient’s goals.

Nurses are also responsible for educating our patients on aspects of their care, any new treatments that are initiated when they are discharged, their illness, and any procedures they will have during their hospitalization.

What are the biggest challenges in being a med-surg nurse?

There are many challenges in any profession, but some are unique to the health care field. While working in a team is incredibly rewarding, there are times the team does not agree on the proper course for the patient. These conversations can be challenging to navigate as the team works toward the patient’s goals of care.

Additionally, there are challenging patient situations—some are emotionally exhausting, some are physically demanding, and some push you mentally. Being able to manage these both at work and when you leave your shift, can be exceedingly difficult at times.

What are the greatest rewards in being a med-surg nurse?

There are so many rewards in med-surg nursing! I think my favorite is watching patients progress, recover, and return to their previous level of health. There is nothing more rewarding than getting to celebrate an achieved goal with your patient—even if it’s as small as sitting in a chair for a meal for the first time in weeks or something enormous like getting to tell your patient they are getting a new set of lungs (this is still one of the highlights of my careers so far!), and everything in between.