Areas of nursing you would NOT like?

Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP · Jan 2, 2015

Before nursing school I wanted to do peds. After doing my peds rotation that changed! Too many sick kids and bad family dynamics.

During nursing school I wanted to be in L&D. After graduating, I thought to myself 'no freaking way! Too much liability!'

I loved mother/baby in nursing school and loved it when I worked it as a RN.

Now I'm baby nurse at deliveries - technically not a L&D nurse but that's where I'm stationed. Technically my job description falls under nursery/NICU.

Community health was not even on my radar until nursing school, but when I did a community health externship between junior and senior years of college I fell in love and knew that's what I wanted to do eventually. I did it for several years as a nurse and am now going back to FNP school in hopes of working in a community health center. Specifically, one that serves migrant/seasonal farmworkers.

Funny how things change.

What has not changed: I never want to do psych nor LTC and I don't like wearing a mask in the OR for C/sections. Having to do that all day every day as an OR nurse would feel extremely suffocating.

dishes, BSN, RN · Jan 2, 2015

I don't have any areas that I dislike, but I avoid pediatric oncology, forensic psychiatry and corrections nursing, because to me, they pose a greater risk for developing compassion fatigue.

ThePrincessBride, MSN, RN, NP · Jan 2, 2015

Where do I begin ...

Oncology...too depressing

Med/Surg...unsafe ratios and overworked

Ortho...worked as a tech and it was labor intensive

Peds...I feel weird for saying this since I want to go into NICU but a tiny baby can't physically resist a bath, meds or a nursing assessment and I don't find any kid over two particularly cute when they are crying and having temper tantrum.

Labor and Delivery ..I work there as a tech and I was extremely saddened to find out lnd nurses don't do much with the babies

Dialysis...horrible hours

Home health...no thanks!

LTC...unsafe and severely understaffed

I look picky on paper but the fields I think I would like/love are NICU, nursery, anything cardiac, psych, step-down/pcu, trauma, wound care, burn unit and corrections nursing (if that is considered a specialty). Maybe ED once I get more experience.

mommy2anangel · Jan 2, 2015

I knew I never wanted to do the following:

1. Psych - My family is crazy enough for me.

2. OR - I can't breathe in those mask, plus just standing in one place hurts my body.

Now there are several areas that I have tried over the years and won't do again.

1. ER - Although, I have done some ER, I think a lot of patient's abuse that system with non-emergent situations. (I love trauma though).

2. LTC - Did that for 6 years. I get too attached.

3. Home-Health - Too much filth and too many bugs.

4. Case-Management for PCP - I never got so tired of fielding narcotic refill request.

5. Teaching - (What I currently do). Wow, that is all I am saying about that.

kbrn2002, ADN, RN · Jan 2, 2015

Definitely anything involving newborns or pediatrics. You could not pay me any amount of money, as I have no interest.
I'm a geriatric nurse and I really enjoy working with the elderly.

Same here! Zero interest then in taking care of sick kids, and that hasn't changed. I was lucky I guess. I came into nursing at a time when there really was a shortage so I got some really good benefits and sign on bonuses for staying with my employer. LTC was and is my area of interest. I can't see myself working any where else.

Gooselady, BSN, RN · Jan 2, 2015

I would have had different answers through out the years. But because I have DONE areas of nursing I would never have wanted to do, and did them successfully and with satisfaction, I'm beginning to wonder if there are any that I would genuinely NOT want to do.

One thing that is clear, over the years, is that I can do just about anything -- literally-- in nursing when the staff is a good one. Supportive, reasonably drama free, people who enjoy their jobs more than not are a blessing to work with, and somehow infuse me with whatever it is I need to get ANY job done.

One of the best staff I worked with was clearly the 'worst' job I ever had. Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, we worked on the psychiatric ICU, which in the mid to late 90's meant the poor folks shoveled off the streets having gouged their own eyes out. People so violent when manic they could go to no other facility. I've had sh*t thrown at me which missed by centimeters, learned all kinds of new names to call people, been totally fooled by sociopaths, combed lice uncountable times, removed banana from a lady parts, all with this amazing nursing staff. An 'easy job' in nursing can be intolerable if I'm surrounded by people who dislike the job, are addicted to drama and so forth.

I'm pretty sure I could do MOST things that an RN can do, scope of practice-wise, with training. I would enjoy doing most things nurses do, at least for a while. At this point in my career I no longer have strong dislikes insofar as a nursing job. It boils down to staff and management for me.

CT Pixie, BSN, RN · Jan 2, 2015

I knew going in I loved geriatrics. I've worked with that population in one job or another since i was 16 years old. My first and only LPN job was as a floor nurse for a LTC. Loved it. Would do it now as an RN but the facility I left as an LPN to go back to school only uses RN's in supervisory positions. Im a hands on kinda gal. I wouldn't be happy as a super.

I've always disliked psych. During my LPN rotation, my CI tried to convience me to go into it since I had in her words (she was a psych nurse for years) 'had the touch with this type of patient'. The nurses on the unit I did my LPN clinicals on agreed with my CI and also tried talking me into psych. Again during RN school, the CI and floor nurses all said I had 'the touch' and worked wonderfully with the patients. You couldn't pay me enough to work psych. My hats off to the nurses who are in psych. I just can't do it.

OR is another area I could never do. I hate having my face covered for any amount of time, so the mask would make me claustrophobic.

My heart has always been kids and geri. So geriatrics or peds is where I'd be happiest.

Twinmom06, ASN, APN · Jan 2, 2015

Psych - from nursing school I couldn't stand psych. In 18 months of floor nursing I've seen so many patients that they simply can't place due to violent histories and so much encephalopathy that I just can't stand it. Pleasantly confused elderly people don't really bother me but I have a really hard time "entering the reality".

OB - I wanted OB when I graduated, did an externship in OB...was convinced that OB was for me, then I encountered so many shrews (nurses) that I really want no part of OB.

ER - I'm not an adrenaline junkie...no thanks.

I did basic med/surge for a year - and really liked it, but the 5 8 hour shifts overnight were killing me. If I could have had 12 hour shifts I don't think I ever would have left. I just moved to PCU - so its quite a learning curve, but so far so good.

grandpaj · Jan 2, 2015

Psych, L&D, peds, ER, LTC/SNF are probably the only things I'd definitively rule out. I'm not an adrenaline junkie and working with kids means dealing with their parents...no thanks.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Jan 3, 2015

When you were in nursing school were there any areas of nursing that you knew ahead of time that you did NOT want to get into. And did you have you mind set on one area?
What were those areas?

I had no interest in anything to do with sub-adults. Peds, PICU, NICU, Newborn nursery, L & D -- no interest. Disinterest. Run away screaming. Same with Psych.

B52, BSN, MSN, RN · Jan 3, 2015

I wanted nothing to do with Med/Surg, OB, or Peds. I only wanted psych, and that's where I landed. I had LPN experience and family experience in this area. :bag:

Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN · Jan 3, 2015

Very first starting in pre-nursing and taking basic and devleopmental psych classes, I had this idea in my head that I might be a psych NP someday. Then I had my clinicals in psych. It wasn't for me.

Nothing with sub-adults, to borrow Ruby Vee's term. :cheeky: I love kids...I had one while in nursing school and have 5 now, but professionally I don't do kids. 18 yr olds are hard enough!

I too didn't care for my OR day in school. I can't remember the procedures I saw, but I was pregnant and for one had to b leaded from my neck to my knees. Between morning sickness, inability to drink water while in the OR, staying on my feet, wearing a mask, and wearing this heavy dress...I got incredibly woozy. It took all of my strength to stay on my feet. This was not lost on the staff, and they assumed that I was green and horrified at the sight of an open belly. A guy in my church has an aunt who was an OR RN, but he calls her "The nurse that handed the scalpel to the surgeon." Hopefully this is an inaccurate description of what OR nurses do, but I couldn't function as an assistant to anyone. I like having some autonomy.