How do you decide what type of nursing you would like to specialize in?

[Student_]

Hi everyone, I am new to this forum, and I am new to the health industry.

I haven't even been into nursing school yet, I am going to start taking my prerequisites this fall.

My question is, what part of the whole program do you decide what you want to specialize in?

Do you decide while you are IN actual nursing school? Or once you are a registered nurse and work in the hospital?

I know there are different types of nurses, I'm just not quite sure what kind of nurse I would like to be, and what I would like to specialize in, and learn more about?

Can someone help me out? I really want to find a department I'm passionate about.

I also plan on getting my masters degree, I'm just not quite sure if I want to be a Nurse Practitioner or a Certified Nurse Anesthetist.

How do I go about trying to figure out what I would like to specialize in? There are so many options out there, I really want to start figuring it out now, rather then later :)

Thank you.

[turnforthenurse, MSN, NP]

Some people find out the area they want to specialize in when they are in nursing school; others do not find out until they start working. Some know even before starting nursing school. I knew right off the bat that I did not want to work in mother/baby or psych. I thought I would like peds, but turns out I didn't like it at all, especially PICU. I have always had an interest in critical care and throughout nursing school I learned that cardiac fascinated me. I wanted to do something related to that, and I was lucky to land a job in progressive care.

Have you looked into shadowing a nurse in your area? That could give you a front-row seat on a day in the life of an RN in a specific area of nursing.

[KimN]

I am currently in nursing school and am still deciding! I just KNEW for sure that I wanted to work in labor & delivery or pediatrics. Well turns out I'm just so-so on L&D and too emotional to work with children, not to mention volatile. So many times I would like to punch out these parents, I'm telling you...

It turns out that i LOVE the ICU and ER. However, I still feel myself jumping around quite a bit. Nursing school is fantastic because you can try your hand at so many things: surgical, geriatrics, oncology, community nursing... whatever you'd like.

On a side note, I too thought that I wanted to get my masters "in some field of nursing" and here is my two cents knowing what I know now. Being an RN, nurse practioner, anesthetist, etc. are all SO different. The funny thing to me is that many of the masters specialties do not have a lot in common with being an RN. I genuinely advise you to work on devoting yourself to becoming a nurse first ... a nurse that is dedicated to pursuing and furthering their education and allow the rest of the plans to come as they will. I too thought I wanted to do both of those, however there is not a lot of patient care and quite frankly, they both seem boring now. All i can say is nursing school will be your real crash course through this all :)