Med Surg Or Pcu Floor Better To Work On

I work med surg 7p 7a.

Med surg or pcu floor better to work on.

Of course i will get what i am given but still being undecisive what path i want to take. I am having several interviews with med surg ed and pcu. But not only that you will get the skills needed to take care of more seriously ill individuals. Nurses in these units may have higher patient to nurse ratios as well.

General medicine nurses working in general medicine may work in med surgical med surg floors or general medicine which both refer to catch all floors where individuals who do not meet criteria for admission to critical care or specialty units are admitted. If money is not a factor for you as a med surg nurse i would recommend taking the pcu position because those nurses don t take as many patients as a med surg nurse. The med surg nurse usually sees far more patients coming and going over a typical shift than the icu nurse does. I have to say med surg days is a completely different beast from med surg nights.

Patients are frequently admitted to the floor and some may only stay for a few hours or overnight before being discharged. Due to the high needs patients found in a progressive care unit pcu nurses are generally required to have advanced training and certifications to prepare them for success in critical care. Having worked in both of these areas i thought i d share some of the differences that you can expect. These patients still need a high level of skilled nursing care and surveillance although less so than in an icu but are more stable.

We re lucky if we have 2 nurse aides on days for a 36 bed. At my hospital that s 6 patients per nurse. Med surge patient to nurse ratio can be more like 7 11 patients for each nurse but this can vary depending on the way your employer staffs nurses on your unit. The nurses and nas are expected to care for the same amount of patients as we do on nights all the while dealing with 10x more.

Some pcus provide general care while others are more focused such as a cardiac care pcu. More time to critically think about your patient s needs passion8rn has 13 years experience. Some nurses admit and discharge multiple patients during every shift. In my experience pcu is easier than med surg due to the lower patient ratio.

Med surg patients tend to experience fewer code blues as they typically aren t as chronically sick as your average pcu patient. The nurse to patient ratio would be higher than in an icu but lower than a med surg unit anywhere from 1 to 3 to 1 to 5. Nurses on my floor med surg have different opinions on this med surg myth.