And, of course, you’ll need to pass the NCLEX-RN to be licensed. At the very least, you’ll need to earn an associate degree in nursing or bachelor of science in nursing. While certification is not necessary to work on a med-surg unit, it can help you find work more easily, and even perhaps command better pay. Communicating with and educating patients and their families about their care along with discharge instructions.Identifying emergencies and managing them competently.Performing various nursing procedures, including starting IVs, inserting and removing catheters, changing dressings, and administering medications.Documenting symptoms, reactions, and progress.Assessing patients and observing their progress.In a busy hospital you could be managing up to 5 patients on a shift, which means you need to be able to multitask and prioritize patient care appropriately.

Med-surg nurses often have many responsibilities, caring for several patients on a shift while coordinating with the interprofessional healthcare team.Ĭritical thinking skills, a vast knowledge of diseases and body systems, management abilities, and the capacity to stay calm under pressure are key traits of a competent med-surg nurse. Their focus includes illness management, disease prevention, and health promotion but most importantly, they advocate for and educate their patients. Med-surg nurses take care of patients admitted to the hospital with nonsurgical (medical) and surgical conditions. A hospital patient is going to spend more time with a med-surg nurse than any other clinician. Of 3.1 million practicing RNs, at least 650,000 (21%) are medical-surgical nurses. Medical-surgical nursing is the single largest nursing specialty in the United States, according to the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses (AMSN), whose affiliated certifying board offers one of the two credentials in med/surg nursing. They’re thinking, of course, of a medical-surgical (med-surg) nurse. What Does Being a Medical-Surgical Nurse Mean?Ĭhances are that if you ask friends about their image of a nurse, they’ll think of a nurse in a hospital caring for a patient at the bedside-carefully monitoring the patient, dispensing medications, providing patient education, and informing and comforting family members. But which is the best choice for you? Here, we’ll take a deep dive into what it means to be a certified medical-surgical nurse. Thinking about the next step in your career? The nursing profession is a robust field, with certifications running the gamut of clinical, managerial, and educational specialties.

Amsn nurse