Changing Speciality Preference

When I went to nursing school I did so with the intention of working NICU when I graduated. At the time we lived near a big metro area that had dozens of NICUs to choose from. The end of my 1st year of nursing school we moved due to my husband's job to a much smaller town. I was able to transfer to another campus of the same college and finish my last year of nursing school but it meant commuting 120 miles one way (to another large metro area). The small town we moved to did not have a NICU and I just figured when I graduated, I would continue to commute to work in my desired field. However, after doing so for 9 months for school, I was not willing to commute that far any longer. So, I applied at our local hospital for the newborn nursery. There were no openings at that time. I was offered a position in oncology, which I also found interesting. I took the position with the idea that I would stay a year or so, get some good nursing experience, and when an opening became available in mother/baby I would transfer. I fell in love with oncology and ended up staying there for my entire career!

I became interested in being a nurse when I was hospitalized and saw the difference a nurse could make in my recovery. So my first idea was to be a floor nurse like the ones I met when I was sick. But after some research and by the time my pre-reqs were finished (and I actually started nursing school), my goal was to be a nurse for underserved populations. Public health appealed to me greatly. The semester before graduation, I asked to have my preceptorship in the health department, but there were no such opportunities at the time. My school was heavily focused on hospital floor nursing. I was encouraged to get a job in a hospital and I did. I did not like it at all. I left and worked in an outpatient setting and liked it a lot. Eventually, I did become a public health nurse. I love it and hope to stay with this specialty for the length of my career.

I started wanting to be a PMHNP, finished wanting to work in neuro (which I did.)