Whats your specialty?What are the Pros and Cons

[Juwon]

]Hi, I would like to know your nursing specialty that you work in, and also the pros and cons that you see in your specialty. Would love to hear from many, thanks!

[emtb2rn, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

ER.

Pros: fast, never know what's coming in, get to do it all, lots of standing orders/order sets, get to laugh a lot, see some really cool stuff, get to fix people in real time, get pts stable enough to go to the unit, very informal, md/rn/techs work as team. This my er, can't speak for all.

Cons: ratios? What're those? ER will eat you alive if you aren't decisive, quick thinking, flexible and confident in what you do/don't know.

[ChristineN, BSN, RN]

I do pediatrics/adolescence and med-surg

Pediatrics/Adolescence

I've worked peds, primarily adolescence for three years now. I prefer the teenagers. I love the teaching that comes with involving a teen in their own health, be it routine post-op care or how to care for the new diagnosis of a chronic illness. With my teens there can be alot of psych issues too as they can come in with overdose, gunshot, or find out unexpectedly that they are pregnant, or have STD's. To work in this area you definitely have to be good at giving the pt support without judging them for the mistakes they have made. Many of our chronic pts will experience depression and decide to go off of their meds or be non-compliant with their treatment regimen (ie skip hemodialysis, stop taking insulin)

Pros Ideal ratio is 1:4. Most pts are at least semi independent.

Cons. When a pt dies it can be harder for everyone to deal with. Can be hard to deal with emotionally some of the rough situations I see these kids in.

[chicookie, BSN, RN]

Bloodless Medicine and Surgery

Pro: It's a rare job. I work with a limited number of patients. I think I have the best of both worlds. I have enough time to do patient teaching and actually have the time to sit down with my patients and not have to hurry and do typical nursing stuff. I do research on not only bloodless alternatives but also we are doing a study on how our patients vs patients that receive blood differ (length of stay, cost, etc). I serve as an advocate for my patients. I do also of nursing education as well. At the same time, its an office job M to F. I enjoy what I do. Doing presentations and also it allows me to tap into my artisty side as I also make newsletters and flyers for our department.

Cons: Its a very rare job. There are only 150 bloodless programs in the country so I want to move and have this type of job it will be really hard to do so. I have to deal on a daily bases with doctors and nurses who think our program is either not needed or worthless. I get told all the time what I am doing is fake nursing because I am not passing meds, inserting IVs, etc. At first doing presentations for doctors and nurses was intimating but not so much anymore. Even though we have signs everywhere, do nursing orientation, do in services in all nursing floors, most nurses still have no clue who we are. You have to have lots and lots of patience and like any nursing field very thick skin. I think my biggest complaint is that I deal with very, very, very VERY hardheaded people. It's mentally exhausting.

[everthesame, LPN, LVN]

I work in corrections nursing.

Pros: Usually low acuity. No Press Ganey. No visitors. You are actually allowed to tell your patients to sit down and be quiet when necessary and do not have to accept any backtalk.

Cons: Well...the cons (convicts) lie to you about everything and try to manipulate you for anything they can get. You have to assume whatever they are telling you is a lie until you have objective evidence to the contrary.

Sad to see folks incarcerated who really should be in a psychiatric facility but either such facilities aren't available or their county decides prison is a cheaper option.

[XXWeaponX]

I work in psych and chemical dependency, in an outpatient, for profit, nation wide organization that does both treatment and research. I began here as a nurse in treatment, working with chemically dependant folks with co-occuring disorders(mental health and many also with HIV/AIDS and HCV.) I ended up being transferred to research, as a nurse research associate working on a 3 year NIH/NIDA study of cocaine dependency and a new drug for treatment. Due to the fact that I am also a certified addictions treatment counselor, I am also a back up counselor for our study site, as CBT is part of the study.

What I like: I have always wanted to work in research, this has literally been a dream come true.

I like my company, and feel that as a harm reduction based treatment facility, we are truly patient centered and committed to evidence based practices. I love my patients, and feel that I am really making a difference. While it is a slightly different treatment setting working on studies, over all the spirit and the mission is the same. I know that for many people, my gesture of kindness and care may be the only time that day that they are treated with respect and consideration.

What I don't like: The pay is definitely sub par compared to what you get paid in acute or subacute care. It's something that I accept because I am disinterested in working in those settings, but damn, I do miss the money that I made when I tried working in a SNF. The unhappiness that I experienced when I worked in that job lead me to see that I needed to follow my true path and do the job I was called towards, regardless of the money.

I also will say that it's really, really difficult to maintain your bedside nursing skills when you are working in this environment.

I think it's important that people like me speak up about our jobs, because everyone focuses on the more "glamorous" nursing gigs, like ER or NICU or ICU, but the fact is that there are many, many ways to do nursing, and you don't have to work in a hospital to have an extremely rewarding career.

[Purple_Scrubs, BSN, RN]

School Nursing

Pros: Most of the kids and families are great; you get to develop a relationship with the community and become "the" nurse; mostly low acuity, but you do get some action too and often a chance to practice skills normally seen in the hospital (catheters, injections, nebs, etc.); very independent practice; you get to do a world of good for kids, and will truly make a difference; I am not gonna lie...the schedule does not suck!

Cons: you are on your own so you must have stellar assessment skills and confidence to make tough decisions; you are an outsider...a healthcare person in a world of education people, which can be lonely; the goals of said education people do not always coincide with your goals; generally when things go bad in a school, they can go very bad and you are 100% on your own until EMS arrives; pay is generally much lower than the hospital setting; you can get "pigeon holed" in this specialty and it can be difficult to get back into an acute care setting; parents can be difficult; you will see cases of abuse that you will report to CPS, but they do not remove children unless the abuse is severe (and their definition of severe is different than yours)

Even though the cons list seems long, the pros far outweigh them! It is a wonderful specialty!