Nursing Roles

[Balto]

People constantly talk about the diverse career opportunities available to a licensed nurse (like educator, administrator, legal consult, etc). I love reading different opinions and anecdotes from others, so these questions are open to any nurse users on this site...

Which roles have you been a part of as a practicing nurse? What specialties have you explored? Which was your favorite? What sort of advanced degrees did you pursue? Which direction would you like to unexpectedly take your career if you could?

[BSNbeauty, BSN, RN]

I used to be a job hopper until I finally landed my "dream job". I've done LTC, methadone nursing, school nursing, CVICU, peds HH, ER, and now I work in Post partum which I LOVE !!!!! I've hopped around a bit however, all my experiences have taught me something new that I still apply to my work every day. If I didn't hop, I wouldn't have had so many wonderful experiences with patients, nurses, doctors and etc.

I love being a bedside nurse , however if later down line I couldn't do bedside nursing anymore I would love to be a nursing recruiter. i'm a few classes away from my BSN. I think I want to stop there.... If I do decide to get my masters it'll probably be in leadership/managment

[RNperdiem, RN]

I work at a large teaching hospital, and I have met with a few nurses in some of the more unusual jobs such as transplant coordinator, staff nursing education, and diabetic patient teaching, and the one thing they seem to have in common is that they were well-known nurses with lots of experience who were semi-recruited into their positions. The saying "it is who you know" that helped them get those jobs.

[nurseEsteve]

Once i was a resort nurse which is cool. same with company nurse but we use resort nurse coz we also cater to different foreigners/guest in the resort aside from doing usual nursing task you will be able to explore different cultures from western to eastern waylife from your foreign guest perspectives. That was a lot of fun.

nurse.Esteve

[guest2210]

I used to be a TENS fitter, explaining use pre-op then applying it post op on podiatry patients. When I first got a job in a hospital, 2 years after graduating, my med/surg floor closed for 6 months due to low census. I floated for those 6 months...best job at that time. I worked everywhere, even ED Triage and learned so much.

But the best job I've ever had was a on-nursing position as a bartender in a VFW...best job ever!!!

[laKrugRN]

I am currently in my first nursing gig. I am an Internal Med nurse. Get to a hospital that give you room to grow. If I wanted to, I could float to Peds, Ortho, Psych, OB-GYN..great thing about nursing is soooo many options and roles.