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Discussion

Knowing what to do exactly

In which nursing speciality do you feel that once you're trained and spent a little bit of time in the field you know what to do exactly?

The thing with me is that I want to learn a speciality and want to become an expert in it and know how to do my job.

I don't want to keep asking for help. (Help may not be availabe since it's usually short staffed).

I guess what I am really trying to ask is in which specialty that you worked on took the least amount of time to learn and be an expert?

I mean, you can do the job in your sleep........

The reason I ask this is because I don't want to be constantly bombarded with new things and have to keep asking for help.

Let me know from your personal experience.

In which speciality do you feel that you can do your job in your sleep?

Thanks,

Aaron

PS: Please respond only if you've worked in that speciality. Thanks.

Featured Replies

If you think you will know exactly what to do every time something comes around the pike in nursing, maybe your looking into the wrong profession.

Nursing changes on a daily/hourly basis and no two cases are every the same.

  • Author

Ofcourse.....no two cases are the exact same.........but in which speciality is it similar? Where you can say hmmmmmmmmmmm...........I did this before......this looks similar?

And which nursing speciality is worst at that?

If you think you will know exactly what to do every time something comes around the pike in nursing, maybe your looking into the wrong profession.

Nursing changes on a daily/hourly basis and no two cases are every the same.

  • Experts

I don't believe there is such a specialty (where you can do it in your sleep) -- and I certainly wouldn't want to be cared for by a nurse who was doing the job in her/his sleep!! :)

Nursing (healthcare in general) is constantly changing -- in addition to each client being unique/different (as meownsmile noted), there are always new procedures, new medications, etc., etc., etc., coming down the pike. New research renders the old techniques and "pearls of wisdom" obsolete. You will be amazed at how quickly how much of what you learned in nursing school becomes obsolete and irrelevant, and has to be continually replaced with new information/skills. When I was a nursing faculty member, our department spent a lot of time agonizing over how to teach the students how to learn, rather than teaching them a specific set of data and skills, because learning, changing, and adapting are lifelong, continuous processes in nursing.

After ~20 years in nursing, I'm firmly convinced that the most dangerous nurse is the one who is completely confident that s/he knows everything s/he needs to know about her/his specialty/workplace, is always right, and always knows what to do. It's when you start getting complacent about how competent you are that you really get into trouble ... :)

On a personal note, since you asked, I would say that, if it's really important to you to feel that you're fully competent and expert, psych would be a bad choice.

I'm in Med/Surg. I haven't been there long, nor have I been a nurse for very long, and I certainly would not call myself an expert. I am at the point of just hoping that one day, maybe say in the next year, to finally "get it" so that I have gained the confidence to act indepentantly and in my client's best interest. There will never be a situation where I know exactly what to do, I don't think that exists in life.

I also teach Taekwondo. I've been doing that for 13 years. Do I know how to teach and what I am teaching? I sure hope so by now. But I never know what to expect because I am dealing with people, children and adults, and people have a very strange way of being different. Communication skills, teaching methods, and techniques all have to be tailored to the student. There is never one situation that is the same as the next.

Nursing is the same way. There are so many different variables that need to be addressed differently according to the individual. There are so many componants to each client's case that you can't ever think that you know exactly what to do. You just have to begin to be comfortable in trusting your own judgement based on your experience and knowledge. (this is a case of saying what I need to hear myself sometimes). We will all need incouragement and advice. Never be afraid to ask for it.

I don't care what my specialty is. I just want to be the best nurse I can possibly be and that comes with experience. I am in a geographical location (very rural) that puts me in med/surge for the time being. It may change at sometime and then I will learn from a new point of view.

Wow, I feel the exact opposite of you. I have worked in L&D since the day I graduated (a year ago) and sometimes I feel bad that I am so specialized. My best friend is an ER nurse and she knows sooo much about so many different things. Sometimes I'm jealous of that. But then she says to me, "don't you feel so smart to know so much about labor and delivery?"

I guess it just goes back to, different strokes for different folks. :chuckle

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