How did you *know* your specialty and when?

Nurses General Nursing

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  1. When did YOU know your specialty?

    • 26
      Before I started nursing school!
    • 22
      During or halfway through nursing school!
    • 20
      After nursing school!
    • 29
      I'm still not sure!
    • 21
      Don't stress you'll find it :)

109 members have participated

Hi nurses! :redpinkhe

I was just curious - when did you know what specialty you wanted to work in? I have one year left of nursing school and have done several placements but haven't really found my "niche" yet (although I know that mental health nursing is not for me).

Next year we have to choose our placements and wondering if I should pick a few really different ones (that I may not have imagined I'd like) and see if I like it? I guess it's the time to experiment maybe?

A lot of students in my class already know what their "calling" is - many want to work in NICU. When did you know?

Thanks! :nurse:

Specializes in Neuroscience/Brain and Stroke.

I won't graduate until December but I have it down to 3 specialties. I plan on starting on Neuroscience, I work there now as an Intern and love it but I don't see myself staying there too long. I want to work ER for the majority of my nursing career and when I get burnt out on that I want to get into Hospice. I just want to play around in a bunch of different areas :)

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Psych always interested me...in theory and in clinicals...I was leaning more towards ICU or ER b/c I need a high stress job and figured that would be a good first job b/c of skills and what not...but I was offered a psych position and I haven't regretted it once. And just listening to my friends who chose med/surg I cringe...I never want to do that...

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Yay for psych nursing!

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Specializes in OB/GYN, Peds, School Nurse, DD.

sort of fell into my specialty. In nursing school I was fascinated with Labor & Delivery. The hospital I did my rotation at did not have a dedicated L&D, so women just labored in their beds, with their children, husbands, and cousins milling around. It was not unusual for them to deliver spontaneously in the bed before we could get them to the surgical suite that was set aside for deliveries. I thought this kind of family-centered delivery was the greatest thing since sliced bread. I got a job at a large "modern" hospital where their brand of "state of the art" was to discourage epidurals and going natural, and give everyone scopalamine and keep the dads in the waiting room until the baby was born. Yowsa! I didn't last long at *that* job.

I worked in post-partum for awhile and I really enjoyed teaching new moms how to care for and feed their babies. I worked in the ER briefly--didn't like that. Moved to newborn nursery, more parent education, loved it. Then one day my supervisor told me all nursery RNS had to cross train to NICU, something I did NOT want to do. But it was cross-train or lose my job, so I did it. The first day an experienced nurse saw how anxious I was, took me aside and said, "They're not as hard to kill as they look." :bugeyes: I ended up loving NICU and spent about 15 years there. To mix things up a bit, I did some PICU on the side, too. THAT's when I knew that Pediatrics had me my the tail.

In the past 17 years I have done peds telephone triage, mostly educating parents about how to manage minor illness and injury, and school nursing. Nothing could induce me to give up pediatrics. I've probably been doing some form of peds nursing for about 32 years. I will probably go to my grave with bandaids and Ritalin in my hand.:nurse:

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Specializes in Pediatrics.

Before nursing school, I wanted to do peds - was a popular choice among my classmates at the beginning, but the numbers dwindled considerably. L&D was by far the most popular specialty.

Peds is still my thing - I love the kiddos, even the parents. Could never go back to grown-ups.

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When I initially thought I wanted to be a nurse at age 19, I wanted to be a NICU nurse. Then, shortly before nursing school, I got a small job doing private aide work (have no idea what technical title would be) for a family and a home health nurse over saw everything. I really loved my experience and thought I wanted home health. My mom explained home health is considered community and public health so I would have to wait until I was a senior to take that class. Well, when I was a senior and took community and public health, I fell in love!!! I can honestly say that I LOVED every clinical day I had for that class. Many of my classmates just didn't like it and I was definitely okay with that because that just leaves more room for me.

I honestly can't imagine doing anything else other than going the community and public health route. My plans are to find a job in a health dept or community setting and then fall 2013, start my MPH (hopefully, I can get into where I want to go). After that get certified in public health and continue my education for a PhD.

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

A year out of school, when I realized that I was having way too much fun working in psych to want to leave after putting in that first year.

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For my last clinical semester I picked med surg because I thought that is where I was most likely to end up as a new grad and it was. I have no idea where I want to work. i do know there are areas I do not have any interest in. Because I don't know what I want, I will probably stay in the same area for a long time.

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