How did you *know* your specialty and when? - Page 5

After nursing school. I always thought I'd want to work in Labor and Delivery. Uh, no thanks! I shadowed there in nursing school and again after becoming licensed. I started off in a sub acute care floor of a hospital worked there for 18 months then transferred down to a medical/surg floor with Urology/Renal patient. Left that hospital to one closer to home and started out on a step down cardiac floor, where I learned telemetry and how to start IV's.

After working for a little over a year on that unit, I transferred into the ICU. I worked there for 6 months before deciding to move to a hospital where I'd get MORE critical care experience as I wasn't getting any in the ICU at the local hospital since I had the least seniority, I was always being floated out. I've been an ICU nurse for 10 yrs and I can't imagine doing anything else.

I have always loved psychology. My first nursing job was med/surg. Then went to psych, it was too far to drive on a regular basis but I loved it! Then went to another hospital close to home on med/surg again. I can take or leave med/surg Just got hired back into psych -dual diagnosis facility. I'm back home!!! So excited!!!

Loving my new job!

I always wanted to work OB in school, but was offered a med/surg job and took it out of school. I've been there for 4 years this September and am now a charge nurse and love it. Every now and then I wonder if I'd like anything else as much.

Way, way before I started nursing school or before I even considered going to
nursing school, I knew my specialty. A friend that I had just started working
with, informed me that he was just about to graduate nursing school, and would
be working as a nurse in a psychiatric hospital. I thought that it sounded like
the coolest job ever.

Unfortunately, I'm not currently working in psych (well, except for PRN), but
my heart forever belongs to psych nursing. =) Psych by far isn't the best
specialty to go into if you want fullfillment; by that I mean, being able to see
the results of your work. Psych really does tend to be a revolving door,
especially depending on the facility. I've worked in a couple of state facilities,
and the door truly does spin. I've also worked in a private facility; people
there, adults anyway, had more of a tendency to come to us and get
better and go home, and stay there.

Psych fits my personality; I'm extremely laid back, I love to take time
to talk to and "cut up" with patients, and I have a wacky sense of humor.
I'm totally type B. I have the patience of a saint when it comes to
many mentally ill patients. Psych is just simply where I am the most
comfortable.

Having said that... I worked once on a pediatric psych unit. Never, never
never, never, never, never, never, never, never *gasp*... NEVER AGAIN.

I knew when I had APII in my pre reqs that I liked cardiac. I figured I would work in a CVICU or step down. I also knew I didnt want to work with kids! Figured there was no way I wanted to deal with peds or their parents, I was the one in class that rolled my eyes when more than half of the class wanted to be peds nurses, that was until I did my peds rotation.

I was not looking forward to it, as a matter of fact I thought about skipping the 1st one since we were allowed to miss only on e a semester, but I went, and surprisingly I liked it! After that I was actually excited about the clinical rotation. I still wasn't sure, so to see if this feeling was real I went back and shadowed nurses at the childrens hospital. I really did like it.

My last semester I had two rotations, the first in an adult cvicu and I was actually enjoying that and I learned alot! Then for my senior internship I was placed on a cardiac peds unit. LOVED IT!!!! They offered me an interview and then a job and it was the best decision, I can honestly say I love my job, most of my nursing friends don't feel the same about their jobs.

My experience too! I was 110% sure I wanted to be a peds nurse until I did my peds rotation. I was JUST as sure that I would HATE mental health, until I did my mental health rotation. Now I happily work as a psych nurse and can't imagine doing anything else!

Having done both PDN and acute and critical and specialized care (burn) -- working nights -- I've decided that my specialty is a 9-5 weekday job preferably in informatics or research or in any setting where patients aren't crapping everywhere or trying to hit me. (I'll take outpatient!)

I won't graduate until December but I have it down to 3 specialties. I plan on starting on Neuroscience, I work there now as an Intern and love it but I don't see myself staying there too long. I want to work ER for the majority of my nursing career and when I get burnt out on that I want to get into Hospice. I just want to play around in a bunch of different areas

Psych always interested me...in theory and in clinicals...I was leaning more towards ICU or ER b/c I need a high stress job and figured that would be a good first job b/c of skills and what not...but I was offered a psych position and I haven't regretted it once. And just listening to my friends who chose med/surg I cringe...I never want to do that...