choosing a specialty and personality type?

INFJ: the counselor idealist

Mine was Extrovert, Intuitive, Feeling, Perceiving

I'll be graduating in May, 2007 with my ADN and am interested in ED, Cricital Care, L&D, NICU or psych. I'm so lost as to where to go. I've been offered jobs in psych at a state mental hospital with a forensics unit and L&D and I need to apply this month or I'll miss out.

I did an externship this past summer in L&D and did absolutely LOVE it and I got to spend limited time in the NICU and fell in love, so does that mean it's my destiny? I am doing a part-time tech job in the same department right now and get cancelled more than I work because the census is down (I see alot of nurses get cancelled too). But, they're opening a new post-partum wing in the Spring as I graduate they say they'll be able to schedule more C-sections that way. I have seen some moms go longer than they should've in their pregnancies, but I'm not sure that lack of beds was the issue.

Or is it psych where I feel so much compassion and need to help those lost soles I've seen during my very short clinical rotation (There is also much mental illness/addiction in my immediate family and I suffer from ADHD, addictive personality (compulsive overeating) and depression). I've always been fascinated by the criminal mind and wanted to work in forensics.

My concern is that I am 40 years old and feel that I'll be stuck in my first specialty for the rest of my nursing career because I've heard it's not easy to transition from maternity to other specialties. Can I work in L&D and get some sort of psych certification to help those mothers who are delivering babies and also dealing with their own mental illness?

Any thoughts?

Hi all,

I am ISFJ - any idea what type of nursing/ specialities are good for this type?

Thks a million!

I'm ISTP, introverted, sensing, thinking, perceiving. Does this mean I'm not in the right profession? I hate the nursing I was doing - havent found my niche.

I can't remember my type exactly as I tend to test borderline. I'm definitely "I" in terms of needing alone time to juice my batteries. I've also had a hard time with finding a niche, so I'm curious what "I" types have found work for them.

I'm currently working for healthcare information company because floor nursing just drives me nuts with it's juggling act of ever changing needs and priorities. Other opportunities are very limited without that experience. I prefer having one patient to deal with at a time (but home health wants that floor experience for good reason) and I much prefer the patient education side of nursing as opposed to the task-based side. I also like having a strong support system behind me and in many nursing jobs you're more or less "on your own," after your initial orientation and too often are actively discouraged from asking "too many questions" (with comments like "use your own nursing judgement" and "you should've learned that in school").

I N T P
Strength of the preferences %
67 88 1 22


Am supposed to be thinking about a career in:
Science/Technical
Natural Science
Natural Science Education
Information System Specialist
Computer Programming
Social Service
Lawyer (corporative)
Librarian [YUCK!]

Work in the ED, maybe I should think about a career change. Lawyer or scientist sounds good. But, I do like being in the same group as Albert Einstein-Still have a poster of him hanging up that I got when I was a teenager (I think it's a thing for his hair )

Do you like your work? What kind of ED is it (urban, rural, trauma center, etc)? Would you like to change? Do you think you'd like ER nursing in most any setting or just where you work? Have you worked other areas of nursing? How did you like it?

Hi Krissy,
I'm an ISFJ and have worked in the OR for about 10 years now. I worked in the GI lab for a couple of years as a tech. I'm trying to get into oncology now - just feeling restless and want to try something new. I still love the OR (most days), but have always been interrested in oncology. What do you do?
Christine

I love the actual work but abhor the pt to nurse ratios that jeopardizes patient safety and my license. We consistently have the halls filled with stretchers and chairs lined up in every free space for the patients that are waiting for ED beds (post-triage). The 12 hour shifts also seem to be taking a toll on this aging body. It doesn't help constantly getting the one day on, one day off schedule, with no more than 2 days off in a row.
This is a teaching hospital, level II trauma center in an mixed urban-suburban area of a major NE city (so the suburban part is probably equiv. to most urban area hospitals).
Don't know how I would handle a smaller hospital where you have to reach (and wait for) the admitting docs for orders. I came from a level I trauma center, so I have no experience with not having someone in-house (except for one of my ICU jobs where there were no attendings at night). Other than that, I enjoy ER nursing and probably could do it anywhere. I also did ICU nursing and enjoyed the actually nursing part, the lower nurse to pt ratios; but, the family dynamics and the loss of more than 35% of the patients really wore me down-that's why I wanted the ED (to avoid the emotional entanglement and not burn out from emotional overload).

So, got any suggestions?

I did my thesis on a derivation of this test and found that about 60% of nurses fall into the 4 "guardian" types. I guess most of us are guarding something, either people or money or materiel or something important to us. I could not break it down between nursing units, however, as I did not have enough subjects. I wanted to see if there is such a thing as "ER nurse personality" (or any other type nurse). Don't know if they have similiar personalities & choose ER on that account or if working in ER creates similar behaviors - maybe one of you guys will take up the torch and see what is out there!