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Discussion

How did you know?

New nursing student here. Just finished my second week of classes and I have enjoyed it so far, but find it a bit stressful. I guess that just comes with the eventual job.

My question is this, how did you know which area of nursing you wanted to go into or that you plan on going into? They asked us this in our first day in our foundations lecture and I was surprised how many of my fellow cohorts already know where they want to end up at the end of this in three years.

So how do you know which level of nursing is right for you?

Thank you ahead of time for any suggestions,

Jonathan

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    Units that students want to go into may often not be what they imagined them to be. It is perfectly okay for you to not have a specific specialty in mind. A lot of new grads tend to want to go in L&D or Peds, ICU, ER. But you have to go where the jobs are.

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    I had no desire to go to L&D...went to ICU as a new grad. One year later ended up on L&D!

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    I think it's perfectly fine to leave that question unanswered for now. You might think of a couple of areas that might be of interest to you if you feel outside pressure to say something. I started in a pediatric hospital mainly because my brother had been a patient there, but not having a set of parameters allowed me to work in an amazing variety of places and also gave me the flexibility to move around and live in different areas. All the best to you!

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    I knew before I started nursing school I didn't want to take care of adults. I have no patience for whiny adults. Fortunately, when I graduated there were many hospitals in my area that hired new grads into Peds. I graduated 37 years ago & have never worked a day with adults. Heck, I don't even like being an adult!

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    I knew before I started nursing school I didn't want to take care of adults. I have no patience for whiny adults.

    Same here, but also didn't want to deal with whiny kids either, so I went as young as possible and ended up in NICU.

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    They told me SNF / LTC was slow and boring for RN's. In addition to that, you don't use too many of your skills.

    Then I actually observed the duties of the RN's there. No bum wiping.

    I was like "jackpot!"

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    I think one of the best things about nursing is how flexible you can be going from one area to another. 12 years ago I entered nursing school completely and firmly convinced that I would be a Nurse Midwife. Once my pedi rotation ended, I knew I wanted to work in peds. My first job was adult ortho, however, and I loved it. But I also loved peds. So I took a peds job for a while. Then I worked med-surg float which was very educational and surprisingly enjoyable for me. Then I discovered cardiac nursing. God how I love cardiology. But my funnest job has been working as a camp nurse. Very rewarding, but also challenging.

    My point is, as many posters have said, chances are what you want now may change and doesn't have to be what you want 1, 5, or 10 years from now. And even once you start working, you may want to move to a different area of nursing or even float around to many different areas. Be open to experiences and know that with some time you will come to understand what you would like to do. And with proper planning you may be able to work in many different areas of nursing if you so choose. Best of luck. :)

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    Thank you everyone for the advice. It definitely helped me calm down about things.

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