What's the most and least stressful field of nursing?

[Ted D]

I'm guessing ER is most stressful?

[Kangaroowho]

What would you find stressful about the mental health field?

EVERYTHING! I did 6 wks in mental health while I was waiting to start a new job-- outwardly non-stressful- but mentally-- hugely stressful. All those poor patients needing help and all we did was give them meds~ give me ED any day!

[MedSurgeMess]

MedSurg can be stressful. Like LTC, many times understaffed, overworked

Least stressful FOR ME would be home health or hospice

[braddah]

mental health! it's only rewarding when you see the clients recover! but thats like one person in a million! It appears to be less fulfilling like general medical or surgical where most of the time 'in an ideal world' patients fully recover and live their life to the fullest but mental health is not like that. SOmetimes its like walking around and around in a circle and sometimes healthprofessional become mentally ill themselves BuT GOOD PAY THO here in New Zealand

[braddah]

oh and least stressfull..common now..it would be nurse educator LOL thats gotta be less stressful i think? Anyways, the NE on our ward does nothing but 'research' and 'teaches' nurses LOL i want his job!!!

[Schmoo1022]

I do find LTC stressfull at times, usually due to low staffing more than anything else. I like the fact that I have developed relationships with the residents, I know when they aren't their usual selves. I on the other hand, do not deal well with emergencies, or very fast paced areas. So, it just depends on what you can handle and enjoy.

[netglow, ASN, RN]

Thanks a lot Red Cell. Gonna be doing psych soon. Already been teased about it with "Silence of the Lambs" references. :chair:

[anonymurse]

Where I am is least stressful because I have it down. Also it sits on the sweet spot on my personal chaos-order continuum. And I love the nurses I work with. With all that, the actual specialty doesn't mean beans.

[Sterren, BSN, RN]

I think it really depends on the person. There are areas that I would consider insanely stressful, that might be someone else's day in the park. I happen to love the area I work in, and don't find it that stressful, but I'm certain that someone out there would rather gouge their eye out with a spoon than work here because of the stress they would experience there. It's just a matter of what you like or don't like, and what you can and cannot tolerate in a given 12 hour shift.

[azhiker96, BSN, RN]

I'm very comfortable managing a pt. with room temperature BP, arthmias, pain issues, nausea issues, art line, CVP line, or extubating a pt.

However, an otherwise stable pt. with psych issues drives me nuts.