What are some nursing careers that are great for a first year RN?

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I am a Pre-Nursing student who has already applied to nursing school (just waiting for acceptance or rejection) and I was wondering what are some nursing careers that would be great for a first time RN. I have been reading some some stories about nurses who are overwhelmed with how quickly they have been thrown on to the floor and seen some gross sites and either passed out or threw up. Is there some nursing specialties that have less disgusting things to look at so that I can work my way up to the disgusting stuff? I don't have a problem with blood or anything because I suffered from Sickle Cell Disease and was always in need of blood transfusions and getting needles poked into my skin so i can tolerate needles and things like that but I fear that i may pass out at the sight of something extremely disgusting. I have also shadowed an RT and watched a patient be suctioned and had no problem then. Any advice???? Some may say that nursing may not be the career for me but i believe in my heart that it is what i want to do and if i have to look at disgusting stuff all day to get used to it i will, i just want to know if i can start somewhere small and work my way up. Thank you in advance.

Specializes in Ambulatory Surgery, Ophthalmology, Tele.

While in nursing school you will have many learning experiences (some gross and some not so gross).

My first nursing job was in telemetry. I liked tele because it had some med-surg as well as some more acute patients. It was nice that I had 4 patients instead of 5 too ;) I'm in California.

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mchel210 lol yea pretty much, but I was just reading other posts and I saw similar questions but I probably would take any job offered to me anyways I just was wondering if there were options but most likely there aren't lol

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Specializes in Pedi.
I have never heard of nurses vomiting. If you find something that grosses you out you will learn your way around it (gross smells wear a mask with Chapstick on the inside). As far as fainting it almost happened to me in the OR. Not because I was grossed out but because I can only wear a mask for so long. I learned is needed to be careful when wearing a mask

I can recall colleagues in the hospital vomiting during a shift. One was pregnant and bordering on hyperemesis and the other came down with Norovirus while at work and had to be sent home. Neither had anything to do with what was going on with their patients.

Sorry, OP, but the good areas to work as a new grad involve the "gross" stuff. The areas where you can get away from that kind of stuff require experience.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.

OP, there are going to be things that may or may not gross you out; you won't know until you get there.

For me, was Peds OR...especially anything orthopedics. I can handle ANY adult surgery; however, observing a kid have to have pins in place and hear the drilling into the bone made me a little woozy, especially between the ages of 3-5; even a small skin graft surgical procedure had me dizzy. The one way I got over having a pedi patient with such issues was when I had to take care of a 4 year old with pins and a arterial and venous graft in his lower extremity; I had to sit down during bedside report because I was about to pass out and get sick. I got myself together enough to care for this patient for 2 shifts with my preceptor, and got better at it. :) When I encounter patients in the future; I am sure that I will be comfortable; same thing with respiratory patients-I was uncomfortable and now I love vents and trached patients and worked 8 years with respiratory patients.

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Thanks everyone for your feedback all I am hoping for is a job period I don't mind where I work I'll just have to deal with whatever they throw at me and as a nurse I'm sure I'll be getting a lot of curve balls thrown at me lol

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Hopefully I will be able to get used to these things but for now I just need to survive nursing school lol I hope to be as experienced as most of u and be as happy as u all are within your profession

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I wouldn't worry about what kind of specialty you want to go into until you are almost done with nursing school. It's always great to have interests and aspirations of what you want to be one day, but don't get too caught up in it right now. There are bigger things to worry about at this point in your education like just getting through nursing school...lol :) I have friends who went into nursing school wanting to be one thing, ended up hating it in clinicals, and went into something else. So your mind may change. But realistically, you can't be too picky when you graduate. Jobs are hard to get as a new nurse because you have no experience. So get that first job, get your experience, and then apply in areas that interest you once you have that 2 years experience under your belt. Some people are lucky and get in the area they wanted to be in right away and some don't. Good luck with everything!

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Thank you..and I am currently getting my cna certification so hopefully once I get I can work and get some experience as well

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Being a CNA first is great experience, but mostly for yourself and getting adjusted to working in healthcare, basic patient care, and time management. But unfortunately some employers won't care too much about your CNA experience because it's not RN experience...they're just not the same. It will look good to some extent, but won't help you when it comes to having those "2 years experience" that you will see on application requirements. But I fully encourage all people wanting I go into nursing to get their CNA license. It's a great experience!

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