for everyone to answer

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · Dec 31, 2014

There are so many threads on this topic on AN. You can go to the yellow bar at the top of the page, hit the little magnifying glass icon, and type in your search terms. Here's one to get you started:

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-student/what-kind-of-934714.html

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Jan 1, 2015

What is your area/specialty of nursing and what makes you choose to work in that specialty?

My current specialty area is acute rehabilitation. To be totally honest I have no particular interest in that specialty, or in any other nursing specialty, so I cannot really offer an answer as to why I choose to work in that area other than the abundance of jobs in rehab. In essence, it is a backbreaking specialty that few nurses want to do.

What do you love about it? What do you hate about it?

Although it is totally cool to see a patient recover after having been deconditioned, I do not love anything in particular about this specialty. I hate the fact that this specialty is especially injury-prone due to the heavy patient populations whom we serve.

Racer15, BSN, RN · Jan 1, 2015

ER nursing. I love the fast pace. I love it when I can give a "quick fix" and I enjoy the teamwork. I like only having to deal with certain patients for a short time although I joke with some of my favorites that if they continue to be so nice I'll hold them hostage. It's the only home I've ever had but most days I like it. Dislikes...the drama it can bring. The crappy locum docs we have to deal with. Hateful frequent fliers.

LoveMyBugs, BSN, CNA, RN · Jan 1, 2015

Pediatric ER, love the ER because of the pace, you are only with pts for a short time. A lot of the times we can fix and send em home

Love pediatrics because they tend to be less drama then adults, I had a cardiac kiddo the other day gave him stickers and coloring pages and he told me it was his best day ever!

PacoUSA, BSN, RN · Jan 1, 2015

I started out in med/surg/tele. I definitely did not seek out that specialty, I only ended up in it because it was the easiest job to get right after graduation almost 3 years ago. I am currently a travel nurse and am remaining in tele for now by choice only because it is the only experience I have and need to embrace that for travel assignments. I'm willing to do that in exchange for the experience of traveling to different hospitals in my desired locations. I am however doing whatever I can to transition away from the pure med-surg aspect of it and focus on exclusive telemetry units (right now I am on a cardiac tele unit and I really enjoy that). This way, I can avoid patients that present with dx such as ETOH withdrawal, which is a type of patient that I absolutely abhor caring for and usually ends up in a pure med/surg unit. I do hate the high ratio aspect of my specialty most of all, I don't feel I can adequately care for 5-6 patients as I intend. Three is ideal for me, I can also handle four very well but anything above that I find myself just getting through tasks.

Once I am done with travel nursing, I am headed back to a staff job in another specialty, most likely critical care. I will do that for a few more years and then think about transitioning away from the bedside ... informatics or risk management? Or maybe educator.

adpiRN · Jan 1, 2015

I do L&D.

I love that we're generally 1:1 or 1:2.

Our patients are generally healthy.

Seeing babies being born is amazing.

I hate how stressful it can be. Nothing worse than a baby coming out badly especially if it's unexpected and you don't have backup in the room.

It can be messy. We deal with patients' blood, vomit, pee, poop and amniotic fluid.

Having babies is messy business.

I also hate when OBs do things I don't agree with.

I'm also interested in NICU, Peds, OR and school nursing.

LilRedRN1973 · Jan 4, 2015

Corrections. Ended up here inadvertently after a 5 year stint in psych nursing and a 3 year stint in critical care. Very interesting job and I love the autonomy as well as the population I work around. I hate the politics that are involved within the prison system but for the money I make, I will put up with them gladly. I make close to $30,000 more than I did when I worked in the ICU at a large hospital. And I am not running all over the place, placating patients and families or putting up with doctors who are jerks :-)