my chosen field of nursing

[studentnicu]

Hi all, I have been reading this page for a few months now and decided I have some questions and input of my own.

I am only a student nurse, a ripe aged student at that. And I know how naive and ignorant us students must look (and are with barely any experience).

I've read on here, threads of people talking about how much they hate their jobs so I am really concerned about which field I'd like to go into. I've always wanted to be a nicu or picu rn but often read on here how incredibly stressful that job is with a large patient load. Feeling a bit defeated - as is apparently normal at this stage in study.

Please may I here of your pros and cons for whatever rn job youre in? Thanks 😊

[NICU Guy, BSN, RN]

. I've always wanted to be a nicu or picu rn but often read on here how incredibly stressful that job is with a large patient load.

Large patient load? The max that NICU nurses have is 3 patients, sometimes 1-2 patients depending on the acuity.

[emmy27]

ER nurse here.

Pros:

• Never, ever boring.
  
• Sometimes very gratifying ("I helped save a life today" is a pretty good end of day reflection).
  
• Flexible hours (7-7? 11-11? need five days off in a row without using PTO? All can probably be arranged!).
  
• Portable and in-demand (everywhere has ERs, everywhere needs ER nurses).
  
• Everything else seems pretty laid-back in comparison to work.
  
• You get to see a little bit of everything.
  
• You will have the best work stories.
  

Cons:

• Physically, mentally, and emotionally draining work.
  
• Unpredictable- you could have a day of taking out stitches and patching up minor injuries, or babysit boarded floor patients for 12 hours, or code six people in a row. No idea going in. This is the flip side of "never boring."
  
• There's no way to absolutely stop the flow of patients like in other departments (a floor or ICU can say they're full, but an ED, even if they can convince their management to put them on bypass for ambulance traffic, can't shut the front door, and a lot of crazy stuff can come in through the front door, up to and including GSWs and codes). So if you're understaffed and the patients just keep coming... you just have to roll with it. See "physically mentally and emotionally draining" above.
  
• You see a little of everything, but are expert in nothing (by the standards of other specialties, that is- you're expert in emergency care!) and you will take some crap from receiving nurses who have never spent a day in the ED and don't understand why you haven't done a full head-to-toe, taken a detailed social history, and bathed the patient you're sending them, while the lobby is full to bursting and psych patients are running screaming down the halls around you.
  
• You see a lot of the worst and saddest aspects of humanity, and some of it you can't talk about or share with other people in your life, because it's not right or because they wouldn't understand.
  
  
  Every specialty and unit has ups and downs. The important thing is finding one where the pros are very appealing to you and the cons are not such a big deal.