What's my nursing specialty?

[Nurzelady]

Hi I'm interested in hearing people's suggestions on which nursing specialty may be a good fit for me based on who I am. Here it goes.

I don't want to work in a VERY stressful environment. I don't mind working in a fast paced setting, but i don't want to feel overwhelmed in what I'm doing. I get bored with things easily so I want to work in a setting where the same thing doesnt' happen everyday. I want it to be fun and exciting. I want to be able to have enough time to focus on my patients and talk to them. I don't like it when a whole bunch of things is happening all at the same time, ALL the time. I love teaching so I want to be able to do alot of that in my job. I want to feel like I'm making a difference in my patient's lives and that I actually see that when I come into work. I want to work mainly with adults of all ages.

Can you help me? What do you think my specialty could be?

[mustlovepoodles, RN]

Dont you need special credentials to be a School nurse? And which ages do you work with?

I have been a nurse for 34 years, 27 of that in pediatrics. I have an Associates Degree, plus a BS in elementary education. I suppose many school systems want BSNs and if I were going to school *today* i would go for the BSN to make myself more employable. At this stage in my career, I am able to get a job as a school nurse because of the breadth of my experience, not just my degrees. I have worked with middle school kids(ages 11-15), but now i'm working with elementary school (ages 5-12). One thing you have to understand about school nursing is that you are in there by yourself. In an emergency you are IT--no oxygen, no backup. You are the resident expert on all things medical, so you have to have a high degree of independence in your practice and a cool head under fire. I could not have done this job as a brand new nurse--i didn't know what i didn't know.

[RedWeasel, RN]

They will ask you about one of your flaws or a time when you were upset by a coworker etc. They try to get you to be negative. What you want to do is turn the negative into positive. Instead of "One time a coworker lied about me to get a promotion" say something showing your more positive outlook like "I am somewhat of a type A personality. I worry about what might happen before it happens. One time there was a promotion coming up at work. I agonized about it alot. I researched and read up on that position and tried to think like I already had the job. It was very stressful, but I guess that is how I handle stress, I try to prepare myself in advance for whatever may come up." Make a negative a positive.