Need help deciding what type of nursing to do?

[stephaniee923]

Hello, I am a freshman in college this winter, at my school, when you graduate after two years, you're an RN. My question is what type of nursing is right for me? I want to work with babies, but no in Intensive Care. I was thinking L&D but am unsure if you can do that as an RN or if its something you have to specialize in. I was also thinking a PP, but again, am unsure if you need to specialize for that. I would just like a little imformation on different types of nursing, and whats they're like. Thanks! Any advice will help as well. :L

[Kuriin, BSN, RN]

Hard to say. When you're in school, you go through several rotations similar to medical school to help you decide what specialty you want. You say you want to work with babies right now, but just wait until you actually DO work with babies. You might change your mind. Or you might not.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

1) When you graduate, you are only eligible to take the licensure exam (NCLEX). You will not be an RN until you pass that.

2) You will have rotations in several adult specialties, mostly; most short programs like ADN/ASN have fairly limited (short) rotations in pediatrics and L&D/nursery. (I don't know what a PP is, so I can't comment on that.) This is because when you look at the people who are in hospitals, the vast majority of them are adults, so the vast majority of nurses take care of adults.

It is way, waaay too soon to pick a specialty, even though you think you know what you want. Some of the old folks on this board will remember when 90% of entering nursing students wanted to work in baby or mother-baby units; of course, if that happened, then who would take care of everyone else? And of course, most of them did not end up in pedi. Nowadays the fad career path plan is for CRNA school or NP school in a year, but they're finding out that isn't gonna happen for most of them either.

Last, there is no nursing shortage, and probably will not be much of one when you graduate in 2 years. So you will take whatever job you can get (odds are it will be with adults), and see what happens after that. You have a long career ahead of you. It's OK to have goals, passions, and dreeeeeaammms for a straight career path, but keep your peripheral vision working because you just never know. You will have far, far more choices to think about than you know now.

One way to learn about the bazillion specialties in nursing is to look at the big yellow band at the top of this page, click on Specialties, and spend a day or two cruising through all of them. There are MANY! I wish more students did this early on, so they could learn how to keep their eyes and ears open to more possibilities as they go along.

Good luck!

[SL2014]

You can be hired to work in PP or L&D as an RN. Just like you can be hired into the ICU as an RN. There are also almost always extra certifications to help you improve your practice and make you more appealing to employers. PP and L&D have very different focuses. PP is a lot of working with babies and mothers to help them transition into their role of mother to their baby. Even for second time moms. PP nurses do a lot of teaching about breastfeeding and helping people through one of the most special times in their life so that they can be successful when they go home. Medically you are looking for PP issues such as bleeding and possible infection in mom or issues with baby. L&D is actually very little contact with the babies. Mom comes, delivers then is off to PP. L&D from what I have heard is very intense and busy. Similar to ED.

As far as choosing what is right for you... In school you will go through most of the various specialties. Usually Peds, OB, Critical Care, Mental Health, Community Health and Adult Health. You might get a good idea of what you want to do during these rotations.

For me and a lot of other people that I know- this is not/was not the case. Many nurses want to do something, love their rotation in school then when they get there they decide maybe something else would have been better. There are also people I know that have from day 1: "I want to be a pediatric oncology nurse" they get hired in that position and LOVE it.

That being said, as a new grad you might not have a whole lot of choice unless you know someone or can afford to wait for a long time. Nursing is a little over saturated with new graduate nurses, making getting a job difficult at times- let alone the job that you "want". It took me 300 applications and 6 months to find a job and I applied everywhere except for long term care centers.

My advice to you would be to go where the wind takes you. Learn as much as you can, don't turn down any opportunity in your clinicals. Look for opportunities to follow nurses in areas that you might not get to experience in clinical- like surgery centers or home hospice. You'd be surprised where you find your heart.

[RunBabyRN]

There are SO many directions you can go in nursing, and you'll learn about even more when you get into school. If you don't already have your heart set on something, be open to the possibilities. And like others have said, you'll experience stuff in clinicals that will help you figure that out, and the job market when you graduate may mean you take what you can get.

Me, I've known for 10 years what I wanted to do. In clinicals, I've enjoyed other departments (some I really haven't!), but my heart still sings for the same department I knew I wanted, and I'm in my final semester now. Luckily, I have TWO job leads that look very promising (fingers crossed!!) in that area of nursing, so here's hoping!

Go with the flow, and see what happens in the coming years. There is NOOOO need to tie yourself to one idea now.

[applesxoranges, BSN, RN]

I guess PP is postpartum? If that is the case, then yes you would work with the babies.

It is rare to get hired into a specialized unit. I am going into critical care as soon as I pass my NCLEX but the ER wanted me. However, I worked hard and saw to it that I had valuable experience that made people want me.

However, I worked hard and saw to it that I had valuable experience that made people want me.

Which still makes your immediate hire into a specialty unit a relative rarity.

Working hard and valuable experience are the norm and yet many people do not get hired.

OP, to be blunt, you're in no position to know what type of nursing to do given that you're just beginning the journey. Things will become somewhat clearer as you progress.

Even at that, you may not have many options early on so I'd suggest that you not set yourself up for disappointment.

It's fine to have goals but your basic goal should be to become an employed nurse as soon as possible after graduation. After that, everything else is a bonus.