Poll: what area of nsg will you go into?

Nursing Students General Students

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  1. What area of nsg will you go into?

    • 8
      Medical-Surgical
    • 10
      Operating Room
    • 9
      Emergency Room
    • 8
      Adult Critical Care
    • 1
      Orthopedics
    • 4
      Oncology
    • 17
      OB/Gyn, well baby nursery
    • 8
      Pediatrics
    • 7
      Pedi/Neonatal Critical Care
    • 0
      Home Health

72 members have participated

Ok I know everyone asks this periodically, but nobody has for awhile, and I know the student nurses in my group keep changing their minds! Its interesting how many people want to go into ER and trauma these days (I wonder if the media has anything to do with that?).

I'd like to see the responses to this!

:roll

Ok, I know there are more fields to nursing than this, but I could only choose 10.

Its multiple choice... if you need to choose more than one.

I get the first vote!

Specializes in Psych, hospice, family practice.

MsPurp, PLEASE don't hate psych.

Mary

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Well, Right now my interest still stands with pediatrics and it has been that way ever since I thought of going to nursing school which has been 5 years now. It has not changed YET. Now, I start my pediatric rotation in 3 more weeks so we will DEFINTELY see if I am still interested but I think I will be. I have been working in a children's hospital since last summer but it has ONLY been in outpatient and not the inpatient. I am going to switch to Inpatient in May.

I graduate Sunday May 11th, 2003. I am so excited I can't wait. I know it is getting really close now because today we got letter's saying that it is almost time to pre-req. So on march 18th, I will be pre-registering for my senior year. Which in a way is scary but it is also nice to know that I am getting closer and closer.

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I want to keep an open mind since I am not actually in nursing school yet, but I am interested in learning more about a few areas. First, I am interested in CICU and ICU because that is where I volunteered when I was in high school and I liked that. I am also interested in OB because I think it would be nice to help people at such a monumental time in their lives. I am also interested in surgical nursing and am right now volunteering Fridays at the OR in the hospital here on base. Who knows, when I go through clinicals I may find something I haven't even thought of yet. I am just enjoying learning as much as possible for now.

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Mary:

Well, you know everything is not for everybody, and there is nothing in me that enjoys psych at all.

In fact, I find it kind of unnerving. My whole rotation I was mentally preparing myself to run for the exits (I knew the shortest route to each one). I just find psychiatric patients are, yes, interesting, but a little unpredictable, and as a psych nurse you have to be concerned for your safety.

Just my .02

Everyone doesn't want to be a peds nurse either. Its just where your heart is.

:roll

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ICU is where the patients that can't talk(they're usually intubated) and often aren't oriented enough to operate a call light are. Once they do get to the point that they learn to run your butt off, it's time to transfer them to YOUR floor.That's as close to heaven as a nurse can get.

It also calls on heavy Cardiology skills and it's a pathway to other job descriptions like CRNA, Flight nursing, Nurse Practitioner. That's why I like it.

Brad

P.S.

Mrs Purp,

Just keep the wall behind you and the Nurses station in sight.....and don't wear anything you can't get feces out of:rolleyes: I think psych patients are much more interesting and honest than the gen. floor variety, though It takes a "different" kind of nurse to work there and I'm with ya on that one.

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When I graduate in May (yay!) I'll be working in the same ICU where I'm currently a PCA. It's a cardiovascular surgery and transplant ICU so it's really great experience. I love my job there, and I'm really looking forward to being an RN there too.

MsPurp, I agree with you. . .everybody just has their preferences and if you don't particularly like an area, that's okay. I didn't really enjoy psych either. I mean, I didn't hate the rotation, but didn't really enjoy it either, and I didn't really feel like I learned alot from the clinical experience. We were in a ward where the average length of stay was around 18 years, and several of the ward's clients had extensive histories of violence against staff. That always did make me nervous.

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Specializes in Psych, hospice, family practice.

Oh I completely understand Ms Purp. There's no way I could be a peds nurse. During my peds and NICU rotation in school, I just felt like crying everytime I would leave clinicals. But we are needed in all areas.

I guess what I meant to say was, please don't hate psych NURSING because it's not your thing, but that's not really what you implied anyway. But that leads me to something I've given a lot of thought to since hanging around in allnurses. I have noticed that the psych nurse forum is not very active. I've read and posted quite a bit in other interesting forums.

What I am curious about is what nurses in other specialty areas think of psych nurses. I remember some of the attitudes of the nursing staff, and even doctors, about psych nurses when I was still very early in my nursing career, and working on a med-surg unit. That attitude was that psych nurses were not REAL nurses. When I was about to transfer to psych in the same hospital, one of the MDs commented that it would be a "waste of a good nurse".

Before I expound on my calling, I will await to see what (if any) response there may be to what I have just said.

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My vote was for OR nurse, but I might change my mind later on. I haven't had much experience yet, so I hope I find something that really calls to me during my clinical rotations.

I worked for 2 years as a CNA on a med-surg floor, and while I think you get great experience there, I don't think I would want to do it for my whole career. I don't think I could do Peds because I'm a big softie when it comes to kids, and I don't want to be the mean nurse that has to give a child a shot. I think I would be crying right along with the kids! :rolleyes:

As for psych, I won't do my rotation until the summer, but right now it doesn't hold any special interest for me. I am, however, kind of nervous because I hear horror stories about psych rotations from so many students. Mary, I don't think I can recall ever hearing any nurses or doctors where I worked say anything negative about psych nurses or wards.

I am really interested in the ambulatory surgery type clinics, but unfortunately won't get to do a rotation there.

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Mary:

I love psych nurses. I think they're cool. Especially the seasoned, been there awhile, nothing is a real emergency unless you are bleeding out of your ears type of nurses. There's this one nurse on the psych unit at my hospital and he cracks me up. I witnessed this interaction with one of his patients:

Nurse: what are you here for?

Patient: this

holds out her arm, there are a few faint scratch marks on the inside of her wrist. also a small tattoo.

Nurse: you're here because you got a TATTOO?

Patient: no, I tried to kill myself

yada yada yada

My best nursey friend wants to be a psych nurse... she'd be great at it. She's really into the developmental theorists, and psych theorists, and all that other stuff... me, forget about it.

Give me the ear infections, the RSV, the gastroenteritis anyday over someone with 'psychotic features'.

:roll

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Specializes in Psych, hospice, family practice.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I've been in psych for 12 years. In school, I knew it would be a toss up between L&D or psych, my 2 most favorite rotations. Psych won out and I have never regretted it. My family used to tease me, you know, with stuff like 'it takes one to know one', referring to people with mental problems I assume. Little did they know that, the way I retained a lot of the psych stuff I was learning while in school, was that I could relate a lot of it to THEM - especially the personality disorders....LOL.

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I vote for the ER, I like the excitement, and that is the main area I have interest in. After that I might like home health, because of the independence and it's not a choice, but travel nursing sounds like a lot of fun

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I ultimately want to become a crna so I'll have to

work in an ICU for at least a year after graduation. Can't wait ti get started

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