What's your favorite area of nursing and why?

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in ER.

What's your favorite area of nursing and why? Curious to hear all the responses!

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Specializes in ED.

I love emergency nursing, it keeps you on your toes. Really!:chuckle

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Specializes in cardiothoracic surgery.

I work on a cardiothoracic surgical floor and this is the only place I have worked. I love it! I really don't see myself working anywhere else. I like it because I love the heart and I love taking care of surgical patients. We do get overflow from other units so I do have some experience with other patient populations, but CABG's and thoracic surgeries are the best!

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I like emergency nursing also, but I have only worked as an emergency room tech. I am about to graduate from nursing school May 15! and I would like to work in the emergency room but it seems like a scary place to start out as a nurse!! what do you all think? I do love the fact that you see so many different patients in one shift with so many different acute situations but I just don't have the guts to start there. I think I will probably start at a med-surg unit, just to get comfortable in my own new nurse skin.:specs:

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I've always loved Critical Care Nursing - even when I was a student nurse. I now work in a very busy ICU and I love every minute of it. I also love floating/scheduling shifts in the ER. There's something about the pace & the acuity of the patients that I really love. It's a great feeling when you can intervene before a patient codes. I couldn't see myself working anywhere else.

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Specializes in ER.
I like emergency nursing also, but I have only worked as an emergency room tech. I am about to graduate from nursing school May 15! and I would like to work in the emergency room but it seems like a scary place to start out as a nurse!! what do you all think? I do love the fact that you see so many different patients in one shift with so many different acute situations but I just don't have the guts to start there. I think I will probably start at a med-surg unit, just to get comfortable in my own new nurse skin.:specs:

I was a brand new ED nurse- started the week after graduation! I think if you have tech experience you are already ahead of the game. Do you know EKGs, splinting, etc? If so you have a big advantage! If you have a strong support system/preceptor you should do fine in the ED! :up:

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Specializes in Psychiatric.

I adore psych nursing...I knew going into nursing that I wanted to work in mental health...every day is a mental workout for me...a real challenge of my ability to really, REALLY connect to my patients. It's great to be part of a team that brings someone from florid psychosis into the world of reality again, and helps people in their private hell become functional, happy citizens again...I also feel that this population's health problems, both mental AND physical, are undertreated, and I like being the person who helps bring it all together.

There's also that part of me that LOVES working with forensic patients...I LOVE the very violent, right-there-on-the-edge patients..keeps me on my toes!:D

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Specializes in Family Practice, Mental Health.

At this stage in my nursing career, I have tried almost every different flavor on the ice cream cart. What I've discovered about myself along the way, is that I like VARIETY! autonomy, and action.

I work in a very fast paced Critical Care Unit in an area that gets some fairly interesting patients.

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Specializes in Operating Room.

OR for me...I love it because most of the time you get to see how you've helped that patient. We actually get a fair amount of repeats too(inpatients coming back for repeat surgeries, I&Ds etc). You see some very interesting things in the OR and you develop a stomach of steel..very few things gross you out. On the downside, your friends/relatives ban you from telling stories about work, especially around meal time!:D

We also only have 1 patient at a time and there is a real spirit of teamwork when you have a good group of people in the room. It can actually be fun.

You get your meals and breaks 98% of the time.

Overtime if you want it(call).

You get to scrub sometimes..I used to be a scrub tech so I love this.:up:

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Specializes in Oncology/BMT.

I did a stint in ICU. I know work outpatient oncology and invasive procedure recovery.

For the oncology aspect, we do chemotherapy infusions and work with liquid tumors who are about to or have had a cell transplant. We also get overflows from the inpatient oncology unit at our hospital. I love oncology. The patients are always very appreciative of everything that you do for them and it really does make you feel good about yourself and what you do. I enjoy patient education and that is a big thing in oncology. We see our transplant patients everyday for 3 to 4 months, so you get to know them and their families. They become "friends" of yours while they are there. I knew as I stepped foot into my current job that it was where I was meant to be.

On the flipside, the procedures we recover are heart caths, GI scopes, IR stuff, myelograms, pacers, ablations, and gyne stuff. We also do outpatient antibiotic and IVIGG infusions. So I guess I really do see it all.

Oncology is my favorite though!

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Specializes in School Nursing.

I love school nursing! There are no two days alike, and you never know what is going to walk through the door. It may be a papercut, or it may be an asthmatic kid in real trouble. I like the autonomy and love being THE nurse. I have only been at my school for 1 1/2 years and have already formed strong relationships with the kids, parents and community. I feel like what is do for these kids is the essence for nursing, whereas on the floor I felt like a task master. Pretty much anyone can be trained to hang fluids, but it takes a NURSE to really root out what is going on with these kids and advocate for their needs. The more I work with the kids, the more I grow as a nurse and I feel myself "blooming" into the kind of nurse I want to be. Sometimes I miss the floor and the camraderie between nurses, but I would not trade the feeling I get when I kid or parent tells me that I have made a difference.

Case in point, right now I am working with a kid who has serious behavioral issues and ADHD. We have finally gotten him on a med regime, but he still acts out. I have managed to root out that the other kids in the class are picking on him, and he does not have the self control yet to not act out when they call him names or egg him on. He has had some real outbursts and I think the other kids like to see how far they can push him. Now that we know that, I will be talking to the class about respect and teasing, and along with the parent I will be trying to make this child feel safe enough to tell an adult when he is being harassed. I had a long meeting with the mother yesterday and I told her that I really care about her child, and I know he is a good kid. She broke down crying. No other adult had ever told her that they actually care about her child - the teachers and admin see him as a problem. She was touched and grateful.

NOW THAT IS NURSING!

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Specializes in Pediatric/Adolescent, Med-Surg.

While I am a fairly new nurse, I love my job working with adolescent medical inpatients. While many people can not understand why I would choose to work with teenagers, I consider this to be my favorite patient population by far to work with. The teenagers can have a variety of emotional responses to their diagnoses, as well as various ways of coping, which I am fine with. Of the teenagers, the cystic fibrosis patients hold a special place in my heart, and I know if I ever work in a clinic I would work in a CF clinic anyday.

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