How did you decide your specialty?

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A little background information: I am a second degree BSN student and I graduate in December of this year. I have been thinking a lot about what kind of jobs to apply for since graduation is around the corner. So far, I have done my ob (L&D) and post partum rotations. I work one on one with a preceptor on a cario/neuro critical care unit and have so far worked with her around 250 hours. I will be with her another 225 hours this summer and then again in the fall. I will do my peds and psych rotations in July. We will also get a chance to do a rotation or two in the ER and ICU as well once we take the acute care class in the fall.

Having said all that, I still don't know where I belong. I LOVED labor and delivery but I also love critical care. Should I just bite the bullet and apply for anything and everything for new grads? I know that new grads have some fierce competition and that beggars can't be choosers but I want to be happy where I work (who doesn't?). I am in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area if that matters.

Specializes in Pediatrics.

I went into nursing school knowing I loved peds. Throughout nursing school, I also came to love L&D (even with a professor that hated me). My first job ended up being child psych - and surprisingly, I enjoyed that. I then moved onto med/surg peds at a children's hospital. I am not an adult care person. I just don't have the same compassion or drive when it comes to adults. I love watching the kids get better, and working with the whole family. That's my favorite thing about peds - involving the parents in the care, watching them do their kid's NG feeds, dialysis, suctioning, etc. It kind of restores my faith in humanity every day. And the resilience of kids is so amazing to me. We get kids with TBIs who can't even walk, talk, or eat, and a few weeks later... They're walking out of the unit, a brand new kid with a second chance at life. We see miracles every single day.

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I adapt quickly and I ware on people the longer I'm with them. Having just one home unit would not end well.

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I'm actually of afraid of doing pediatrics. I LOVE kiddos so much that seeing them sick, abused or neglected would break my heart and I wouldn't handle it well emotionally. I am doing my pediatrics rotation at Children's Medical Center Dallas in July and I'm so nervous about it. :(

I know I wouldn't hate it. Don't get me wrong. I care a great deal about my patients but it is easier for me to "separate" myself with the adult ones.

Lol, another reason to love NICU nursing: you get the satisfaction of watching parents bond with kids and enabling parents to feel confident in doing cares, yet still have the peace of mind because nobody has had the opportunity to harm these kids in any way (generally, although we do get some very tough neonatal drug withdrawal cases). They're in your unit from birth, so we can ensure that they're safe, fed, and have their basic needs met.

Also, as an FYI, you may encounter more neonatal losses in L&D than a place like NICU (that's the case in my hospital). Infants are most vulnerable and likely to pass away in the transition phase immediately after labor, including difficult preterm/term resuscitation in the delivery room and cases where the baby is simply too early (

I get what you mean about separating yourself from patients, and I think that to some degree it's necessary in any field of nursing. The very fact that life is so precious makes our jobs totally satisfying at times, but devastating at others. It sounds cliche, but people find ways to cope with patient loss; otherwise, there would be no peds/L&D/neo/trauma/ICU nurses. You can't know unless you try. Self-care is really important, and it helps if you have support from you coworkers (after my first loss, I spent over an hour after my shift ended talking and crying with an amazing coworker who has 40+ years of NICU experience). If it turns out you really hate the unit you're on, there are always more specialties out there.

One other thing you can do is to talk to nurses on the units you apply to about these topics. Some new grad jobs will have a peer interview process, or a chance for you to shadow nurses on the unit. Talk to them about how often loss/abuse/neglect/difficult cases occur, and how people handle them; this is especially pertinent if you're working L&D or ICU.

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Specializes in Flight Nursing, Emergency, Forensics, SANE, Trauma.

I'm in the ED. I thrive on chaos and must be crazy.

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Specializes in Med-surg Telemetry, Leadership, Education.

Get into a good new grad program. I recommend Float Pool nursing - your specialty will find you! Thought I wanted to be an ICU nurse...but was hired into float pool. Was privileged to gain experience in stepdown critical care, ED, med-surg, inpatient psych and inpatient rehab for about 2.75 years. Was recruited into inpatient rehab at my hospital, and I love it! I get to care for the folks who made it through the ICU, neuro, etc. So let your journey teach you!

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Specializes in pcu.

What school do you go to?

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Specializes in pcu.
I'm actually of afraid of doing pediatrics. I LOVE kiddos so much that seeing them sick, abused or neglected would break my heart and I wouldn't handle it well emotionally. I am doing my pediatrics rotation at Children's Medical Center Dallas in July and I'm so nervous about it. :(

I know I wouldn't hate it. Don't get me wrong. I care a great deal about my patients but it is easier for me to "separate" myself with the adult ones.

Hey what school do you go to?

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I worked as a float-pool CNA during nursing school and it helped me tremendously with my nursing career. I learned tips from nurses that I never learned in school. I learned which specialties I would never work in unless I was absolutely required to.

I worked everything from ER, ICUs, OB, Tele, oncology, and everything in between. After school, I started on ortho because I was so familiar with the unit. I ended up hating work and seriously reconsidering my career as a nurse.

Then L&D opened up, I got offered a job, and I haven't looked back.

I love what I do now! I love teaching and being such a huge part of people's lives. I feel like I make a difference now. I would recommend shadowing various types of specialties. There is one for everyone!

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

Hey!! I'm in the DFW area too! I knew I wanted to do Pediatrics when I had my leadership clinical in adult oncology (absolutely hated taking care of adult patients who didn't want to take any responsibility...& I also hated wiping butts :cautious:). I was really drawn to the fact that pedi patients are sick & they can't communicate with you when they are sick. I also get CPS babies (which breaks my heart) but I love that I get to advocate for them, give them the best care possible & just love on them because they really need it. I have a friend who works as a C-section nurse & she loves it because any birth experience could become a c-section birth at any given time. I also had a friend who right after graduation, got a job as a ICU RN & left it because it was really overwhelming for her as a new grad RN. I think labor & delivery would be a fun specialty to go into. Good luck! Wish you the best in whatever you chose.

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Specializes in Emergency/Trauma/LDRP/Ortho ASC.

ED is what I was offered as a new grad. L&D was what I thought I really wanted so I worked ED kept looking around until an ob job turned up. I didn't last long and came screaming back to the ED. As much as I wanted to hate the ED, I'm really good at it. Sometimes you can't always know what speciality fits you until you try it out.

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I figured it out quickly in nursing school during clinicals that I did not want to work with adults and preferred kids. During nursing school I always thought I would love to work in L/D, PP or Newborn Nursery areas but once I became a nurse and had to float to those areas I actually hated it. I really enjoyed Pedi Med/surg stuff - I did that for a couple of years. I then started to sub for my kids school nurse and found that I loved it - now I work as a school nurse...totally feel like I have found my place where I am supposed to be.

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Specializes in Unit Nurse.

I have pretty much worked all areas as a nurse, except post-partum and L&D. I started out on med-surg as one of my instructors strongly suggested for the experience and to build my background in nursing in before branching out. Working med-surg had given me a strong foundation to fall back on, as it exposes you to pretty much all fields of nursing. Granted some of the areas that specialize in one aspect of care are easier to work, but you don't get exposed to nearly as much.

I'm not knocking on L&D / post-partum nurses, as they are much needed as well, but take them for instance. Generally, it's a healthy female that comes in and has their baby, stays a couple days and then discharged home. Not really exposed to much. Send them to a busy med-surg floor and they are generally overwhelmed, especially if given a couple truly sick patients that has multiple things going on. They lack in the critical thinking aspect of nursing and the foundation to fall back on, in which can jeopardize the patient's care.

Therefore, I encourage you to get you some background on a med-surg floor, a medical ICU or even ER before branching into a specialty. It would make you that much stronger of a nurse and you will come to appreciate having that background to fall back on.

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