issues in specialization in nursing

etaoinshrdluRN · Mar 3, 2011

Sorry, but your question is so general, I'm pretty sure no one knows what to address.

mentalhealthRN · Mar 3, 2011

My guess is issues that nurses may have when they choose a specialized area of nursing like psych or OB. ??? Well having worked in two very specialized areas I can tell you my experiences and things I heard from others.

In OB I found that of the nurses that went straight into OB out of school and had been there for a long time, either they had regrets that they never had tried any other area of nursing and felt that it had been too long for them to feel comfortable doing anything else.....or they only ever wanted to do OB and couldn't ever imagine doing anything else and loved it. Kinda the same for psych. I remember when I started in L&D right out of school I loved it at first and when I started to think about all that I had learned in school and hadn't used I started to wonder. I talked to a lot of the nurses and they told me that usually you know in the first few months.....if you can't see yourself doing that forever then you should leave before it's too late and you feel like you can't, like you waited too long and no longer feel comfortable doing other things. I took their advice and l left after 6 months. I knew I couldn't do it forever. I went and tried a few different things until I decided to try psych nursing and doing that I found I could see myself doing it forever. So I think if you find your niche and you are happy there is nothing wrong with working in a specialized area. Not sure if this is what you were looking for but.......hope it helps.

Popwhizbangz, LPN · Mar 3, 2011

What's your question?

solneeshka, BSN, RN · Mar 3, 2011

I would think the biggest issue is that the more you specialize, the less opportunity you have to move into some other aspect of nursing in the future. For all of those new grads who think that working on the floor is the worst thing that could possibly happen to them, it's actually the best thing they could do for their career. Even if they specialize after that, they will be able to call on their floor skills if needed (such as if they want to change specialties). I work in the OR, but I worked on the floor first. When I was still on the floor, I shadowed with a nurse who had started out in the OR only a year earlier. She told me she had no idea where her stethoscope was anymore and didn't think she could take a manual blood pressure if she had to. She said it like she was really proud of it! But she's going to have some problems if she ever decides she'd like to move out of the OR.

ok2bme · Mar 6, 2011

I agree with everyone else. I specialized in psych right out of school. I love it and don't want to do anything else. The city I am moving to has plenty of psych jobs. The problem is..they are located on psych floors in general hospitals and the nurses occasionally have to float to Med/Surg. I don't have this issue currently because I am in a psych only hospital. I am terrified to float. I am looking at refresher courses, and I have only been out of school a year! I am a good psych nurse, but I am not a versatile nurse anymore.

My advice to new grads..follow your bliss. I did it with no regrets. But do consider the fact that you may lose your general knowledge and skill base.