Areas of nursing you would NOT like?

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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?

Specializes in Critical Care.

I liked the elderly because I had such a wonderful grandma and I would visit the people at the nursing home my mom worked for when I would pick my mom up after her shift. I ended up in a tele unit and do like cardiac the best. Overall it is upbeat because there is so much we can do for a patient. I know I'm not suited to ICU, I like knowing I can transfer a patient if they go bad, but I do my best to prevent that from happening. The emergency response team is a great idea that helps prevent most codes, except for Vtach, Vfib high risk patients where the only thing you can do is call a code quickly and defib them. I wish we could prevent all codes, but unfortunately that is not possible.

I never wanted to do OB or peds. I would be out of my element there. Also I know my limits and ICU or ER is not for me. I think oncology would depress me, although now there are so many more treatment options and many people live and survive cancer and that is wonderful! I think I'm where I was meant to be, but ask me this on a bad day and then I'm not so sure. Luckily I've had more good days than bad lately!

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Specializes in Short Term/Skilled.

I don't know about area, but there is one thing I simply can not, (nor will I ever be able to) do, which is bugs.

I've often wondered what would happen if the day came where someone had one in an orifice or something along those lines. *shudder*

Scabies I've dealt with, not happily and with about 1/2 a bottle of xanax that week, but yea..... I can't do bugs.

Hopefully there aren't any areas that see this a lot, and if there are, you won't find me there! :-/

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Specializes in Anesthesia, ICU, PCU.

Nursing is the area of nursing I don't like.

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Specializes in Family Practice, Mental Health.

OB, Mother/Baby and Peds.

That little 14 y/o snot that I took care of in LPN clinicals over twenty five years ago did it for me - - - there she was, laying in bed holding this perfectly beautiful little newborn girl and saying dismissively Oh.....I don't know if I'm going to keep 'It' or not. Here, you take ‘It' back to the nursery, General Hospital is about to come on”.

I figured that if I gave that age group a wide berth, I would be able to maintain my professional demeanor much easier.

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LTC: Alzheimer's patients terrify me. The nicest little old lady suddenly turned demonic, ripped the stethoscope out of my ears and began screaming, crying, etc. Another alz man wacked my arm when I gave him lovenox, almost causing a needle stick injury to me. Terrifying. I couldn't deal with that all day, every day.

Renal: most of them are responsible for their situation from not controlling their diabetes and HTN, yet they haven't learned a thing from it. They're still entitled and have chips on their shoulders. I wouldn't work renal for all the tea in china.

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Specializes in NICU, Telephone Triage.

Wow! I've heard so many negative things about babies and kids. makes me sad. When I was in nursing school I wanted nothing to do with adults. They were mean and hurt my back. I hated the ER because I remember dealing with a drunk homeless man and I wanted to run the other way and puke. I couldn't stand Psych because we just sat around on a locked unit and listened to people talk. I felt like I could never fix them. Right out of nursing school I went into NICU. I liked it because babies don't cuss at you and refuse treatment. They also aren't huge, so they don't hurt my back. I can just swaddle them up and do what I need to do. The best part of NICU has been watching babies get better and go home. I've seen 24 week premies leave the hospital with nothing wrong with them. When the premies come back to visit, they usually look like healthy babies. I like seeing parents happy with their baby's progress. I like seeing babies grow from 1 lb to 5 lbs. I have also enjoyed the great teamwork NICU nurses have.

The things I haven't enjoyed so much are angry parents who want us to perform miracles on their extremely ill newborns. I havent enjoyed saving seriously ill babies who will be physically impaired for the rest of their lives. I haven't enjoyed watching babies die and coding them. I haven't enjoyed needy parents who can be very clueless..and they sometimes leave me wondering why they ever had a baby. I also think some NICU nurses tend to be rigid and set in their ways at times....making them difficult to work with.

So, after 25 years I am ready to try something new...advice nursing. I need to get away from the bedside and learn something else.

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Specializes in NICU, Telephone Triage.

Hated OR too. Hate the mask and the smells. I almost passed out during surgery in nursing school.

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Specializes in Outpatient Psychiatry.

I knew from the outset that I wanted a more detailed or specialized knowledge of a given area of healthcare. For that matter, I was graduate school bound from the first day of undergraduate nursing. (I already had a B.S., several hours towards a master's in other fields, and a career).

I realized in the undergraduate program that I did not like "hands on" stuff, and I still don't. I suppose that's what attracted me -to a degree- towards advanced practice psychiatry. We sit and talk rather than palpate, auscultate, and engage in procedural things. I also became especially interested in neurobiology and psychopharmacology as well as the multiple disciplines of psychology such as social psychology, cognitive science, etc. Much of my previous work revolved around behavioral studies, and I'm considering graduate work in experimental psychology in upcoming years. I call myself a theoretical nurse more than a practical nurse, and by that I don't mean that I operate off of nursing theory but rather my attraction to healthcare lies in understanding more than doing.

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Specializes in ortho, hospice volunteer, psych,.

Ortho

Burn Unit

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Specializes in NICU, Cardiac.

In nursing school, I said "I will never be a floor nurse at XXXX hospital". Guess what I've been for the last 8 months? A floor nurse at XXXX hospital. I will say wholeheartedly that I won't be a psych nurse. That was the only clinical that I could say I was totally uninterested in. I have so much respect for psych nurses, but I don't want to join their ranks.

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Pediatrics and Obstetrics. I'm a guy so it feels weird for me.

Yet OB was the class I had the best grades in during my nursing school days.

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I told myself I'd rather not work as a nurse then work med/surg. How bank account was getting low so that's were I ended up. It's not awful. Just painful. I knew I didn't like med/surg, oncology, peds, psych or in a nursing home. I never liked taking care of sick people. I love surgical aspect of nursing. They come, get fix and leave

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