If you’re applying for jobs now, no doubt have you’ve spent a fair amount of time assessing the pros and cons of a med/surg year.

    For many years, some nurse educators and many nurse managers have maintained that a new grad is not a nurse until that new grad has completed at least 1 year working in an inpatient setting on a medical/surgical floor. They maintain that the experience allows RNs to develop valuable organizational, technical, and assessment skills and helps new grads get a firm grip on the RN role and learn leadership skills.

A nurse educator at Easton Hospital in Pennsylvania, said, “[The year of medical/surgical experience] is absolutely necessary. I went directly into critical care, but I missed out on a lot of organizational experience. I eventually made up for it, but I was in a panic whenever I was reassigned.” Other nurse educators’ responses to the 1-year medical/surgical floor experience controversy range from calling the idea “poppycock” to saying the experience is “helpful but not mandatory.”

    Spending a year on the medical/surgical floor is a useful idea, especially if you don’t have a clear idea of the type of nursing you’re interested in doing or if you feel particularly drawn to medical/surgical nursing—a concentration area in itself. Because of the nursing shortage, new grads are being recruited directly into specialty areas, but you still should be able to find a med/surg job if that’s what you desire. I thought the this interview—although now somewhat dated—sheds some interesting light on this issue.