The reason I decided I wanted to become a nurse was because in high school they made us do projects on our future career. I had NO idea what I wanted to do so I started thinking about my interests. I had always been fascinated with pregnant women and newborns. I would watch all kinds of medical shows and reality shows about women giving birth and raising their babies. So I began researching who takes care of the babies when they are born. And I stumbled upon the NICU. I fell in love with the idea of getting to be the one to take care of the sick fragile newborns. I even job shadowed in a NICU at our local hospital my senior year. I saw many sick babies and it was very sad, but I knew that it is what I wanted to do.
Being in nursing school, the majority of time you are learning how to take care of the adult patient, and only one semester is dedicated to OB/Peds. Sometimes we will be learning about something that has to do with care of the adult patient and it just makes me question whether I am in the right field. I have very little interest in working with adults. I could do it, like I do at clinicals, but if it was something I had to do for the rest of my life I would not want to be a nurse. My heart is with children, but mostly babies in general. I wouldn't mind working with pregnant women in L&D either. It sucks because I know those are probably two of the most popular specialties and it will be hard to find a job especially straight out of school.
Is it normal to feel like this as a nursing student?? Don't get me wrong I love learning everything that we are learning, but I just feel like already knowing what specialty I want to work in can make it hard to learn about the other stuff. I am taking OB/Peds next semester and I can not wait!!
Something to keep in mind too while you're aiming for your goal is that in order to get there, you'll first need to build a strong foundation by learning and mastering the fundamentals. It's great that you know what you want to do, but don't discount what you'll learn by doing the "other" stuff. Guaranteed when you're working in the NICU, you'll be making connections to all kind of skills you learned along the way in different courses and specialties in school. Be a sponge and soak it up. Nothing learned is ever useless.
NurslingNicole
61 Posts
Something to keep in mind too while you're aiming for your goal is that in order to get there, you'll first need to build a strong foundation by learning and mastering the fundamentals. It's great that you know what you want to do, but don't discount what you'll learn by doing the "other" stuff. Guaranteed when you're working in the NICU, you'll be making connections to all kind of skills you learned along the way in different courses and specialties in school. Be a sponge and soak it up. Nothing learned is ever useless.