To be Nurse, has question about specialization

[Cunorix]

Hey guys, I am glad I found a huge community to answer a question for me.

I have been spending a lot of time in the past year studying sleep medicine as a hobby, and recently about 2 month ago I started thinking about Nursing as a career. Due to a couple things, mainly a good salary, good schedule, and I love helping people. But also because getting a degree in Sleep Medicine is rather difficult.

So that leads me to my next question, once I have finished my schooling for nursing is it possible to SPECIALIZE in sleep medicine afterwards? A sleep technician isn't much more then a Nurse who monitors, takes care of, and treats the patient.

Anyway, if that made sense, does anybody know if it is possible?

[EricJRN, MSN, RN]

I don't know any nurses who work for sleep centers, but this might be a place to start to learn more about polysomnography.

http://www.aastweb.org/

I noticed that the openings listed on that site's job board are primarily for sleep technologists and physicians rather than nurses.

[mpccrn, BSN, RN]

at our hospital the sleep tech is more an RT not a nurse.....sorry

[ovnerati]

This question was posed quite some time ago so I don't know if anyone is still following this thread, but I thought I would give a little bit of input. I am a nursing student who currently works as a polysomnographic technician in a sleep lab. Sleep Technician's as we are commonly called are not nurses nor are we respiratory therapists. We are part of a seperate allied health field.

Having said that there is still some opportunities for nurses in sleep medicine. If you are already a nurse it is easier for you to become a board registered polysomnographic technologist. This would normally require atleast 18 months experience performing sleep studies, but as a licensed nurse you would be able to take your board exams after just 6 months performing sleep studies. Secondly our lab does employ some Nurse Practitioners with sleep medicine as a specialty. These dear ladies often make rounds within the hospital to detect sleep disorders in individuals there for other medical issues. You would be surprised how many heart attacks could have been avoided if apnea was recognized and treated earlier or how many psych patient's can be freed from depression by treating similar sleep disorders.

[Sleepcatcher]

Hello,

Not sure if you are still following this thread but I'm in the same situation as you. I've been in the field of Sleep for over six years and going back to school to finish my BSN I started a while back.

As far as specializing in sleep after nursing, like the previous person posted. Absolutely! As you know our field is in a major transition all over the country. Sleep Medicine Clinics and CPAP clinics still need nurses to help educate the patients because as all of us know many sleep disorder patients have a mountain of other medical/health problems and need education, they always have tons of questions, are on like twenty different medications, need follow up care with their treatements, etc. and what better nurses than RPSGTs who have worked in sleep labs to help educate the sleep patient! If you get extremly ambitious, the AASM has a credential for APNs called the Behavioral Sleep Medicine credential (BSM). It consists of a four week fellowship.

It is possible as the medical community becomes more educated in sleep, there could be a need for more nurses in sleep. I'm hoping to see that since so many states are now battling to protect their sleep centers from being overun by RTs. I read that Respiratory Nursing only started like in the 90's??? So maybe??? You could be one of the pioneers of a new nursing specialty, Sleep Medicine Nurses.

Who knows???

Good luck!!