What's YOUR favorite specialty area?

augigi, CNS · Sep 27, 2006

We interviewed for graduate program placements, and the top 3 students got to do a specialty rotation. I REALLY wanted trauma/ED. I got ICU. I did ortho rotation, then ICU, then geriatric rehab. Can you say culture shock? Heh. I LOVED ICU from day one, and went on to do postgraduate ICU qualification. Stayed there (Cardiothoracic/transplant/burn/trauma) until I left nursing for a position with a medical device company who were trialling a product in my ICU. Currently planning to go back to clinical - have been out for 3 years and miss it too much. Decided I prefer scrubs to suits, although I have gained invaluable management and corporate experience.

Good luck, hope you are lucky enough to "fall into" your specialty love like I did. I don't have time to list the pros of ICU - I love it all (except trauma patients, ironically enough).

MQ Edna · Sep 27, 2006

I'm one year out of college and still on the way to finding my niche! While in school I was convinced that postpartum or L & D was where I wanted to be. I did my senior year practicum on a postpartum floor at a large metropolitan hospital and just loved it!

The spring before I graduated (in August) I started the interviewing process. I soon realized there were absolutely no postpartum or L & D jobs available. I interviewed for the single women's health job I could find, on a high risk OB floor. I was up against 12 other candidates and didn't get the job. Panic set in! What was I going to do now!!

After consulted with my sister who has been an RN (ER & ICU) for 18 years, I ended up taking a position in a neurointensive ICU. Not in my wildest dreams did I think I would do ICU. I'm not the type who likes the "adrenaline rush" of emergency situations or is into all the "technology" and gadgets/equipment that are involved in ICU care. I like consistency, interpersonal interactions and opportunities to teach as an RN. But there I was in ICU because I was certain that I couldn't handle the large patient assignments involved with med/surg.

As I look back one year later I realize that my ICU experience has been very beneficial. It's been so satisfying to see that I can handle the intensity and details of caring for critically ill people. Some days I almost have to pinch myself and think "I'm really doing this" (lol)! But, keeping true to my nature I still dislike when emergency situations come up. I'm the nurse who wants to have the same patient assignment over and over again (consistency), and enjoy teaching families and patients when the rare chance arises in the frantic/chaotic world of the ICU. I like the challenges of complex patients, but dislike the ever changing nature of the hospital ICU setting.

So . . .in two weeks I will begin a new job in a LTACH (long term acute care hospital), where I will be caring for complex patients coming out of the acute ICU settings but with a rehab focus. Assignments will range from 2/1 to 4/1 based on patient acuity. Typical patient stay is 30-40 days and I'm looking forward to spending weeks with the same patients and having opportunity for consistent care down a rehab orientated path with patient/family education as a big component of care.

If LTACH nursing truly is what I think it is, then it should be a happy marriage of consistency and critical care nursing. So we will see! I don't think postpartum/L&D will end up being my niche after all. :rolleyes:

TazziRN, RN · Sep 27, 2006

I've been in ER since graduation, and I love it. I worked in the ER my last few months of school as a CNA. When I went on interviews I checked out OB and peds because my dream was to work with kids and babies. One day I was in the hallway and one of the house supes stopped me. The ER manager was very hurt because she was holding one of the two available new grad positions for me and I didn't even apply. It was mine, no interview, all I had to do was sign the application. I would have been a fool to turn it down. I've never regretted the decision.

jojotoo, RN · Sep 27, 2006

ER!!! Feast or famine - treat em and street em! Out the door to the floor!

SmilingBluEyes · Sep 27, 2006

Is and always has been mine:

Ob/GYN.

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Sep 28, 2006

What's your favorite specialty area in nursing?

Surgery

Do you work in this area now- if so, how'd you end up there?

Yes. Did OR rotation in clinical in school, that's when i knew what i wanted to do.

What do YOU view as the pros and cons of your favorite specialty area?

+ Learning new things, meeting new people, problem solving, cool tools (we have an irrigating gun that shoots water 30 ft away, found that out by accident) etc.

- Not much different from high school sometimes when is comes to the socializing and gossip. As an LPN in an OR you get to deal with holier-than-thou types that may literally tell you to your face you don't belong there. Some surgeons expect their orifice to be kissed often. Some pt.s think we are the conceierge (sp) of the Hilton.

Did you always know you wanted to be a rehab, med-surge, ER, NICU, psych nurse, etc...?

No, i'd planned on med-surg.

indynurse#2 · Sep 29, 2006

From the day I started nursing school, I said I was going to be a L/D nurse, did my senior practicum there and I LOVED it but....when I graduated, I was encouraged to work on a med/surg floor for the experience - which I did, and which I hated :)...Now I work as a UM/precert nurse which I absolutely love! I get to learn so much about every disease/surgery/illness/psych issue imaginable. And truly, I don't miss the bedside pt care at all - does that make me a bad nurse??? :rolleyes:

MIA-RN1, RN · Sep 29, 2006

From the day I started nursing school, I said I was going to be a L/D nurse, did my senior practicum there and I LOVED it but....when I graduated, I was encouraged to work on a med/surg floor for the experience - which I did, and which I hated :)...Now I work as a UM/precert nurse which I absolutely love! I get to learn so much about every disease/surgery/illness/psych issue imaginable. And truly, I don't miss the bedside pt care at all - does that make me a bad nurse???

what is a UM precert nurse? It sounds interesting.

MIA-RN1, RN · Sep 29, 2006

I went into nursing school bound and determined to work with adolescents with psych issues. I remember dreading my maternity rotation bcause it was the only area of nursing that I had NO interest in, and I was really worried I might catch 'baby fever' 10+ years after having my tubes tied.

I distinctly remember tellling my maternity clinical instructor that OB is definitely not for me, on the first clinical day no less lol

Before the semester ended I had my job lined up as a postpartum nurse as I found out I really do enjoy it! I love the teaching aspect and the fact that I am taking care of new life. And NO baby fever.

It is scary tho, being in charge of the assessment and care of the new life.

As I look into the future tho, I don't see myself in postpartum for a long time. I totally don't enjoy med-surg but I am thinking that once I am comfortable and feel like a nurse a bit more, I want to go to something a little more acute. I am not sure what though. I figure it will present itself to me when the time is right.

And I need to continue with school to meet my ultimate goal of becoming a nursing instructor.

Gompers, BSN, RN · Sep 29, 2006

I went to nursing school specifically to be a NICU nurse. I had read a book when I was 16 written by the mom of a preemie that died in the NICU. I loved the way she described the nurses and how grateful she was to them even though she lost her daughter. I wanted to be one of those nurses, helping those babies and their families. Preemies in particular amazed me - they are so tiny, yet so strong at the same time. Watching them finish their gestation outside of the womb is fascinating.

I did keep an open mind in school. I kept my eyes and ears open as I went through each class and each clinical rotation. I got a job as a CNA in a med-surg float pool and worked on a half dozen different floors to get exposure to the world of adult nursing. But in the end, I definitely decided that I hit the nail on the head the first time. My senior year I got a job in a NICU at a children's hospital and also did my final preceptorship in another NICU. By the time I graduated, I was very confident in my decision.

Started working in a Level III NICU a few months after graduation and have been there for 8 happy years.

redwinggirlie · Sep 29, 2006

Burns