I.

Introduction

Medical-surgical nursing, is it a specialty or just basic nursing? What is Medicalsurgical nursing really all about? Medical-surgical nursing or in short med-surg nursing
is defined as the diagnosis and treatment of human responses of individuals and
groups to actual or potential health problems. The goal of medical-surgical nursing in
short is to assist the individual or group in promoting, restoring, or maintaining his/her
optimal health. While nursing defined by the International Council of Nurses (ICN) as
Nursing encompasses autonomous and collaborative care of individuals of all ages,
families, groups and communities, sick or well and in all settings. Nursing includes the
promotion of health, prevention of illness, and the care of ill, disabled and dying people.
Advocacy, promotion of a safe environment, research, participation in shaping health
policy and in patient and health systems management, and education are also key
nursing roles. and by the American Nurses Association (ANA) as the protection,
promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury,
alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and
advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations.
Why is it important to know this answer? The real question is do our nurses now
days have the enough knowledge about medical-surgical nursing or would they need to
specialize in medical-surgical nursing? Can you imagine your nurse who just follows
orders from your doctor without knowing why it is done? For us medical-surgical nursing
is just basic nursing, just by merely reading or understanding its definition doesnt differ
with the definition of basic nursing.

II.

Counterargument

Is medical-surgical nursing really a nursing specialty or it is just basic nursing?

The American Board of Nursing Specialties (ABNS) Accreditation Standards outlines
several criteria for a nursing specialty:
1. There is a unique and distinct body of scientific knowledge.
2. There is an identified need for the specialty.
3. The specialty must be defined, its core knowledge explicated, a scope of practice
written, with the nursing component delineated, and standards for the specialty
specified.
Medical-surgical nursing meets the above criteria. These criteria are further refined and
defined throughout the ABNS Accreditation Standards with medical-surgical nursing
fulfilling the requirements. One of the criteria deserving particular notice states there
should be the presence of a national or international organization with registered nurse
members endorsing or supporting the specialty. The Academy of Medical-Surgical
Nurses (AMSN) was established for the purpose of supporting and promoting the work
of the medical-surgical nurse.
One of the ways AMSN has worked to support the role of the medical-surgical nurse is
in the area of continuing education. Because of the complexity of the medical-surgical
patient, evolving technology and the advancement of health care reform, a commitment
to lifelong learning is essential. Whether continuing education is obtained by attendance
at conventions and workshops or through reading journal articles, AMSN has worked to
provide those needed materials for the medical-surgical nurse.
If medical-surgical nursing is a specialty, how can generalist nurse assure or guarantee
their patients safety? According to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) they issued a
new memorandum that would ensure the quality of nursing schools in the country. The CHED
Memorandum No. 14 series of 2009, article VI, section 11,states that the faculty must be holder
of Masters degree in Nursing (MAN, MN, MSN), Education or other allied medical and health
sciences conferred by a college or university duly recognized by the Commission on Higher
Education. Before faculty was hired as long as they were a Registered Nurse in the Philippines
with current/valid PRC ID; and shall have at least one (1) year of clinical practice. Our point is it
was said that medical-surgical nursing is the foundation of all nursing practice and before, all
nurses practiced the art and science of nursing on wards. Everyone was a medical or surgical
nurse that is where all nursing started. Why would we take our chances to specialize, if we can
learn it from basic nursing.

III.

Argument

Specialization maybe, for the next generation is compulsory. When you look
back in the past, nurses before where just mothers who take care of their children or
nuns who take care of the sick and dying. When there where schools who trained
students to take care of people and curriculum where developed, at first it was just a
two year course that became four years, then a licensure to ensure the quality of
nurses. The education goes higher and higher because of the number of nurses
competing to be employed; they must upgrade their selves to have an advantages to
other. But adding years of study mean an added expense that is why there are nurses
who are forced to change field even though they are already registered nurses, maybe
because of the higher income of other fields and they also complain about the work load
which is not equivalent or fair for their payment. A good example, now in our class of
masteral degree, 4 out of 9 are in the field of nursing which means more than half of our
class is either unemployed or in other fields.
Now a days, many patients die every day mostly because of lack of knowledge,
how to prevent disease to happen, how to detect a disease or even how to manage their
disease. It is the responsibility of the nurse to educate the people not just by taking care
of them when they are already sick or in the hospital. We also can prevent the new
diseases from arising by taking care of not just ourselves but also our environment. If our
environment will be maintained and taken care of no new diseases will be happen or
evolve. For example, as climate change impacts health in very many ways. Its direct
effect is in the form of death and injury from the various manifestations of heat stress,
storm and surges, landslide and erosion, drowning from flood; vector, vehicle (water, air,
vermin and insects) and food borne diseases; malnutrition due to falling agricultural yield.
Like what happened in Tacloban and many more cities; as the consequence, many
people died and the Philippine government spent more money rather than using it as
prevention.

IV.

Conclusion

The complexity of the patients, increasing care demands, and increasing regulatory
demands push the medical-surgical nurse into new ways of thinking. In the future, the
medical-surgical nurses role will continue to expand, if new disease will be discovered
and need to studied. The practice of the medical-surgical nurse demands skill and
expertise in a wide variety of disease states, medications, and communication
techniques, as well as the ability to work with numerous members of the health care
team. The Institute of Medicines Future of Nursing report recommends that nurses
should practice to the full extent of their practice. While some have interpreted this
recommendation as addressing the advanced practice nurse, the intent of the
recommendation was broader, including the practice of the registered nurse.

V.

References:

1. Fights, S. and Lattavo, K. An Introduction to Medical-Surgical Nursing. Retrieved

from minority nurse website: http://www.minoritynurse.com/article/introductionmedical-surgical-nursing#sthash.KXKGivrN.dpuf

2. What is Medical-Surgical Nursing? Retrieved from Academy of Medical-surgical

nurse website: http://www.amsn.org/practice-resources/what-medical-surgicalnursing
3. Nursing Retrieved from Wikipedia website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nursing