Side by side: Medicalsurgical nurses rely on speed, accuracy

If you were to predict the next big thing in careers, you might want to take a look at the construction projects in your city. Jonathan Baker, a job analyst in Santa Monica, California, says medical centers

and hospitals seem to be all the rage. And with the increase in facilities, advances in medicine, post-pandemic awareness and more, health care jobs will continue their upward trajectory.

And in nursing, Baker believes that medical-surgical nurses will continue to be one of the largest growing subsets in the nursing profession.

“With so much care being given in hospitals, the need for medical-surgical

nurses will only increase,” Baker says.

Various responsibilities

Medical-surgical nurses, or med-surg nurses, as they’re often called, look at labs and X-ray reports. They also observe patients to keep track of signs and symptoms. “It is a very physical and mental job. You are always observing and assessing,” says Jane Micek, a healthcare career consultant in Pasadena, Calif.

“The roles can change from day to day and doctor to doctor, but you’re always connected to the patient.”

The fast-paced job, which pays an average annual salary of $81,000, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, usually includes patient assessments, coordinating or delegating hands-on care, coordinating medications, IVs and wound care, assisting in some areas of physical therapy and coordinating other activities of the discipline, making referrals and educating patients and families, according to Micek.

Although hospitals employ medicalsurgical nurses, they’re also hired in other facilities, according to the Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, nearly 20 percent of all nurses worked as medicalsurgical nurses at some point in their career.