Feeling lost in Career

[maria1315, BSN, RN]

Hi everyone. I'm hoping this reaches the right crowd and I'm able to get some comforting opinions. I'm a new grad, about 6 months into my job as a postpartum nurse. I love my job. I love my patients, what I'm learning, and I genuinely do look forward to work. I make sure to always arrive early, give it my all, and even continue educating myself about my specialty outside of work when I can. Lately, however, I've become a bit...ashamed of my first nursing job. A lot of my nursing school friends are working in IMCs or ICUs, the OR, etc, and I feel like they are putting their skills to good use. I don't get to start IVs or do any of that stuff, really. I have been a part of rapid responses, caught emergencies w newborns, and even had some crazy cases that were more medsurg/imc than PP. It feels silly to feel this way bc I know I wouldn't be happy working in the ICU with adults or med surg or the OR or ED. I just feel like sometimes I could be doing more? I started off in PP bc I wanted to take care of mommas and their new babies, but also because I wanted to become comfortable with healthy babies before moving onto the NICU. I believe PP will give me a strong foundation for my future. My goal would be to become a NICU nurse and then go onto becoming a pediatric NP. Does anyone have any encouraging words for someone feeling a bit lost and in a sort of stagnant place? I know nursing is a world of possibilities and I can switch specialties later on (I will stay at my current job bc I would feel awful leaving in just a year and screwing over my unit) but I just feel lost. Go into NICU, pediatrics, stay in PP? I don't know.