Opinion: Med/Surg Nurses Hone Potpourri of Important Skills
Thursday October 8, 2009
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Eileen Williamson, RN
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Over time, as a result of research, technological advances, and new treatment modalities, med/surg units in most hospitals spawned separate and discrete sub-specialty units that housed new patient populations and areas of medical and nursing care and practice. Patients with diabetes and thyroid disease, for example, were moved from medical floors to endocrine units, and those undergoing prostate and bladder surgery were no longer just surgical patients, but were admitted to urology. Separate oncology units outside of medicine were set up for patients with cancer, and later grew into whole divisions and services. Doctors and nurses narrowed their scopes of practice to new and more specific areas of medicine and surgery, and it seemed as if everyone was moving in the direction of specialization.
What never changed through all of it, however, was that med/surg nursing and the nurses who practiced it helped the specialty grow and now are indispensable. As demand for their knowledge, expertise, and experience in the care of increasingly diversified groups of patients grew, they continued to be a necessary part of every new med/surg setting established. Med/surg became a specialty of its own, and nurses were getting certified by the American Nurses Credentialing Center and the Medical/Surgical Nurses Certification Board. Then the American Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses was established, and Nov. 1 was designated as an annual recognition day for med/surg nurses. It was clear the specialty was no longer just the way to begin a career; it was an established lifelong career path.
As you read this issue of Nursing Spectrum focused on med/surg nursing, we hope you will be reminded of the scope and breadth of practice that long has been the backbone of nursing care and a hallmark of its excellence. We hope, too, that its pages will in some way recognize all of you — those who started in med/surg and those who stayed — because there are countless patients out there who are grateful you did.
Eileen Williamson, RN, MSN, is vice president of Nursing Communications & Initiatives. To comment, e-mail ewilliamson@gannetthg.com.
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