What type of nursing is best for an introvert?

[Llynn]

I am a new LPN, and have been working in a nursing home for approximately 2 1/2 months. I know this is not the right fit for me, but it was the best paying option as I have loans to pay back. I was wondering if anyone had an idea as to what type of nursing would be best for someone who gets along great with others, but is an introvert. I find being around and interacting with too many people draining, and I feel exhausted by the end of the day. Any ideas?

[FranNHRN]

Forensic nursing

That's funny!!!

[FranNHRN]

I worked home health for several years, and although I am not an introvert I could see how an introvert may enjoy it. You work alone most of the time and are 1:1 with the patient. We used to only meet once a week with our coworkers for team meetings or to meet with our manager. Otherwise, you are pretty much on your own.

I liked the comment about forensic nursing, though. That was funny. It's probably not as much alone time as one might think.

[Itshamrtym]

Would OR be good? Not sure. Ive heard you deal less w/ the pts families..and well, the pts are mostly unconscious :)

Hello:

Well it is true you don't deal a lot with families or the patient, as they are under anesthesia. But, and this is a big but.... You have the surgeons, PA's, med students, interns, CRNA's, Anes. doc's.. Scrub tech's etc. etc. etc... HMMMM.... not sure if a good fit??? What do other OR nurses think??:redbeathe:nurse:

[PICNICRN, BSN, RN]

Maybe OR- not much pt interaction there. Or Maybe angio/endo/or radiology?

[medsurgrnco, BSN, RN]

You might try nights and see if you can deal with it - fewer coworkers, often visitors are asked to leave or get tired and leave, some patients sleep, and you don't have ancilliary staff around as much (limited docs, CM, PT, OT, etc, etc).

You also might try psych. No call bells, limited visiting hours, limited freedom of movement at night at some places, fewer physical needs so that MHW are dealing more with patient needs than nurses.

Have you considered dialysis, a clinic or doctor's office, CM jobs, chart review? All those have fewer people pulling on you at the same time.

[texas2007, BSN, RN]

I am actually considering the NICU. LPNs don't work in the NICU, but I plan on getting my RN at the community college part-time while I work as an LPN. What concerns me about the NICU is how I would handle dealing with family that caused the infant to be in the NICU (ie: drug addicted babies). I think it would be a very emotionally demanding career choice. How often do you come across such situations?

I think the answer to this question varies depending on the type of population your hospital caters to. You might see more of this at a county hospital vs. a private hospital. My hospital is a public hospital and we do have a lot of patients on public welfare, but we are not considered the "county hospital". We do see some drug addicted babies but not many. It seems that most of our babies are there because of pregnancy related complications; pre-term labor, pregnancy induced HTN for the preemies and abruption, birth trauma, PPHN and congenital defects for the term kids.

Nicu can be emotionally draining at times like when your baby dies...and the birth traumas are always sad too imo. It's also sad when you feel as if a kid would be better off if he/she was allowed to pass but the parents insist on doing everything. Of course most of this stuff goes on in Level III. Level III is not always sad- it can be extremely rewarding to see a kiddo you worked your butt off for to be doing better. If you think you might have a hard time dealing with that kind of stuff, there's always Level II, which are mainly stable feeders/growers. However since most of these babies are close to going home, there is a lot more parental contact with stuff like how to give a bath, how to feed, and other discharge info so keep that in mind.

[Dreamer-RN]

Hello:

Well it is true you don't deal a lot with families or the patient, as they are under anesthesia. But, and this is a big but.... You have the surgeons, PA's, med students, interns, CRNA's, Anes. doc's.. Scrub tech's etc. etc. etc... HMMMM.... not sure if a good fit??? What do other OR nurses think??:redbeathe:nurse:

I'm a strong introvert as well. I notice there are a lot introverts working in the OR unit I am externing. I think if one can handle the surgeons, it might be a fit.

[newohiorn, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

I'm an introvert as well and I also find interacting with people draining so I'm pretty well cooked even at the end of an 8-hr shift. I used to work on a very busy surgical floor and in many ways I found that better as far as being an introvert because I didn't interact with my co-workers that much. We were all so busy that we just took care of our own patients with little to no help from each other. I now work in critical care and find that we (the staff) are much more dependent on each other to get the job done because of the nature of the tasks. Overall I am probably interacting with the same amount of people (patients, families and staff) but in different ways. I liked on the surgical floor that I could come to work, do my thing and go home. I didn't have much time to chat with my co-workers, etc. and that suited me just fine.

I also spend a lot of time thinking about what kind of patient turnover I want. For me I've always felt like very short stays (like ER) or very long stays (like Oncology) would be my preference. In critical care I have definitely dealt with some much longer lengths of stay and I will say that I've found that gets draining for me. Even when the patient is nice enough (those that are awake) I find that I just reach a point where I'm "done" with someone and am ready for someone new. That sounds awful and I don't mean it that way...just need someone or something different after a while.

[Llynn]

I did have a clinical rotation in the OR, and I must say that most surgeons were ok, but yes, some were egocentric and acted like they didn't want you there. I am considering OR as an option though, because overall I enjoyed it ( except the leg fatigue!!!).

[Llynn]

Do facilities hire LPNs for dialysis? I do find it interesting.

[Derek1975]

I do think I'm in the wrong line of work as a CNA. I do home health caregiving, and it is expected that you are an extrovert that can work with all different types of personalities. I would like to think I can adapt but patient feedback is telling me differently, and have lost a few clients as a result (me, not the company.) I have a burning desire to be a nurse and am going for prerequisites for nursing (LPN, to start.) I've considered something like Dialysis, but haven't seen much in the way of LPN jobs through Davita or a company like that. Clinic Nurse would be interesting as well, despite the pay cut.

[klone, MSN, RN]

Instead of OR, how about PACU? It's usually just you and the patient, and the patient is generally gorked.