Med surg first, or straight to where you want to end up?
Harper past the first codeThe question
I have heard both versions constantly. Med surg builds the base. Or, do not spend a year somewhere you do not want to be.
Ten months into PCU and I still could not tell you which one was right for me, so I would like to hear from people who went the other way.
If you started in a specialty on day one, what did you have to build later that a general floor would have handed you? And if you did the year first, was the year worth it?
The conversation
3 replies- Riley in the break roomRN, ED, 2 years in
Straight to the department, and there are gaps. Running five stable people is a different skill from running two unstable ones, and I had to build that on purpose afterward instead of absorbing it.
Still the right call. A year spent proving I could tolerate a floor I did not want is a year I would not get back, and I would rather have spent it getting good at the thing I came for.
- Bex in the float poolRN, float pool, 18 months
Third option nobody offers students: float. I have worked most of the units in the building and I now know which one I want for reasons other than what it looked like in a rotation.
Harder first six months, no question. But the choice everybody agonises over here I got to make with evidence.
- Wren on behavioral healthRN, behavioral health, first year
Went specialty immediately, into behavioral health, which is the version of this question nobody asks about. What I did not build was the task fluency everyone else got, and I feel it whenever I pick up on a medical floor.
What I did build early was de escalation, and that transfers everywhere. The trade is real in both directions, which is the part the med surg first argument leaves out.
What would you tell them?
Answer from what you have seen. It posts without your name.
