What kind of nurse are you?

[Atelophobia]

How are you using your nursing education?

What do you do for a living (If you are simply a nurse, tell me about the unit), and do you enjoy it?

I plan to start a BSN program in the fall and am just curious to hear what those with experiance in the field have chosen for themselves.

Personally, with no experiance to base this off, I believe I would enjoy surgical, dermatology, and pediatric units.

Bonus round: Tell me why I might not enjoy the units I listed.

[FurBabyMom, MSN, RN]

I'm an OR nurse. I would say, 90% of the time, I love my job. There are some not so great things about any job. In my opinion, I have the best coworkers and work with the best providers (surgeons, anesthesia). I'm certified, and I've done a lot of precepting new to OR nurses (or just new staff). I also get to help residents learn and work with them a lot (this won't be an issue for you if you work in a non-teaching facility). Even cases that are supposed to be "the same" are never "the same" or "routine" because of the patients and their specific needs.

I worked a stepdown/floor combo unit for about a year prior to going to the OR. It's night and day the difference. I learned so much by doing so - I have phenomenal assessment and time management skills, but I don't think I could have stayed in that environment for forever.

[JulieRN60]

I work IN Home Health, and love it.

I have done the majority of my nursing in Home Health, and it is by far the most satisfying job I have ever had. I get to put to use the nursing theory I learned in my MSN course and still provide that "homey" touch of one on one.

[Julius Seizure]

Pediatric ICU nurse. Love it, unless management is making the unit a miserable place to work.

I don't mind (most) parents. I actually really like teaching them, encouraging them, and helping show them how they can care for their sick child. This might mean teaching about chronic illness or how to do special treatments like tube feedings at home. It also can mean teaching them how to participate in the care of their critically ill child...letting the parent take a temperature or help change a diaper can make them feel not-so-helpless in a scary situation.

As for the kids...it is an individual thing if you can "handle" seeing really sick kids or not. I WILL say, it is incredibly rewarding to see them get better and see their little personalities come back once they start feeling well.

[chacha82, ADN, BSN]

Currently dayshift inpatient post-op stepdown (after ICU but not floor) It's challenging, most days I love it.

If by surgical you mean a general med-surg floor I think that is great for a new grad and you will learn quite a bit. Historically PEDS is not easy to get into as a new grad and you will deal with parents all day long. Dermatology (if you mean clinic) will not be easy to get into as a new grad. Most clinics do not want to train new grads. They are looking for seasoned and experienced nurses.

[SpankedInPittsburgh, DNP, RN]

I'm an ER Nurse and I love it. I think finding happiness on a unit is more about the nurse then the unit. Undoubtedly there are bad places and units to work on but if a nurse is unhappy there are plenty of opportunities. I think all places have happy nurses working in them or else presumably they would have moved on and if they are living lives of misery then shame on them. Anyway, I think it's about finding the right fit for you & the only way to know that is through experience

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

It's been a couple of days since anybody responded and since I see nobody chimed in from LTC I will. I love LTC. I work in a SNF with a mix of long term residents and short term rehab. Short term being relative, our rehab residents average 6-12 weeks stay. We also do respite care and occasionally have somebody for as few as a couple of days to a week.

A SNF isn't for everybody, the ratio's are absolutely brutal. 1 nurse to 24-28 residents on days and PM's and double that on NOC's. Once you get a routine though it's very manageable.

A few good things: The tendency for LTC facilities to do block scheduling. I never rotate shifts, my days I work never change. I can make plans well in advance without worrying about my plans conflicting with work. It's also a field where you really get to know your patients and their families. In many cases when family doesn't live close or are simply not too involved we the staff are the residents adopted family.

The common theme of the staff you work with making or breaking a job is very true here as well. A good crew of CNA's, nurses and all the support staff makes all the difference. Supportive management that doesn't feel the need to micromanage is vital. With the right people LTC is very rewarding, without that it might be one of the hardest jobs in nursing.

[verene, MSN]

New grad nurse working float RN between a few locked residential psych facilities. It's a bit different than what I pictured, but it has pushed me out of my comfort zone in a good way and I enjoy the work.

Hardest part is not having a "home" and having almost every shift be the first shift back because even multiple shifts in a week may not be the same location. Best part is that I work with some awesome people, and working in multiple locations means I get to see and learn more than I would in any one of them, and I'm building experience with different psychiatric populations.

[riverlands]

Work at the county jail and I love it. We nurses run medical and often times there is no provider in house and we call the on call and get what we need. We are a total team and it's much less backstabbing among coworkers than the hospital and much more respect from patients. I worked Tele step down previously and used to take lots of verbal abuse from patients. I receive verbal abuse occasionally from patients in jail but I don't have to take it. No IV dilaudid :). We focus on genuine actual medical needs and call BS when we see it. It's magical.

[NurseSpeedy, ADN, LPN, RN]

Nursing is a very vast career that I think even if you don't like your 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc job, eventually with enough time, learning, and expanding from each experience most people will eventually find something that they like, or can at least tolerate, at some point. If you can find two things you like, then you can go back and forth between the two if you ever need a break from one of them for a while.

I think I liked pool nursing the best. Pay was decent, I chose my hours (although the facility can cancel, so it's important to work somewhere where there is a need), I actually worked there so I knew everyone, and I never got the same assignment for more than two shifts max (because the needs changed daily for each unit). This meant if I had six bed crawling, humors dumpties one day chances are I wouldn't have the same group the next day. Of course I had to learn a new group often but hey, I enjoyed the variety. I could work med/surg one day, psych another, day surgery the next, then rehab, tele, or ICU. Never a dull moment.

[GeminiNurse29]

Worked home health, psych with forensics patients, and now clinic triage. Home health was Ok, I liked the psych surprisingly bc it pushed me out of my comfort zone and I learned to talk to people and call BS when I saw it, and triage is also a lot of talking to people and patient education. I had fantastic coworkers in psych which really made a huge difference since our work could easily burn us out.

[Skips, MSN, RN]

Hi!

I am a full time acute care nurse working in labor and delivery. I also do postpartum occasionally.

I love it. (:

I am also in school getting my master's in nursing education. I would say keep an open mind and see which clinical rotations you enjoy. You might be surprised!

[Atelophobia]

With the right people LTC is very rewarding, without that it might be one of the hardest jobs in nursing.

Currently working in a senior living facility, I already have a feeling geriatrics is not for me. I have a soft voice and my vocal cords are strained by the end of the day from practically shouting to the residents who are hard of hearing. I also learned the hard way that dementia changes more about a person than just their memory.

However, the most rewarding part about it all is probably how thankful most of the seniors are for the care that is provided to them. Some of them will say thank you a handful of times because they don't remember saying thank you five minutes ago! It's so sweet.

I think geriatrics takes a certain kind of person to do it for a long time and enjoy it. I know that the residents you care for and their families appretiate what you do.