I always read posts/threads about nurses encouraging others to stick with nursing because it's a matter of finding your niche. I'm honestly scared of going to nursing school because I hear of too much unhappiness among nurses. But I truely feel that nursing is my calling, even though I've been going back and forth between nursing and radiology (sonography, to be exact).
So, I would love to know--for those of you who have found your niche--what area of nursing to you work in and why do you love it? How long did it take you to find your niche, and was it worth it to wait that long?
Specializes in cardiac, post-op surgicals,critical care.
I have been a RN for almost two years and I haven't exactly found my niche yet. I worked on a post-surgical med-surg floor for 9 months and absolutely loved it. Now I'm working in a cardiovascular step down unit and in the CCU and am kind of getting bored with it. Next I would love to try trauma nursing or the ER. My advice is to try several different areas to determine what fits you best. The greatest thing about the field of nursing is that it's very flexible. Take advantage and have fun with it learning new skills!!
I was working as a "pool" nurse in my hospital, which means I went where ever they needed me. I liked it because of the diversity, but I didn't like not having a "home".
My pediatric instructor from LVN school (who was the NM of Peds) called me one day and said she needed me on peds, I told her that I hadn't done peds since clinicals and that scared me somewhat. She assured me that I would be fine. I was hesitant, but I Pediatrics has been my "home" for two years now.
Peds is great! The worked with my schedule (finishing up my RN), and I discovered that Peds is not scary, just a different aspect of nursing. I really enjoy working in the PICU.
When we do get floated now, we only float in our group, which is Mother/Baby, Nursery or the intermediate nursery.
My niche is wherever I am. It's the place I have to grow into. I'm a slow learner. I have to really understand things to own them. So it takes me a long time to master a thing but eventually I get there, and I tend to stay there because of the investment and because it's tremendous fun to be able to concentrate totally on super-interesting things while everything else runs smoothly on autopilot. I figure I should get where I want to be in only a few years if I keep at it and don't worry about how long it will take.
My niche is with underserved populations. My sister laughs when I say "homeless people are fun to work with!," but I have a
deep appreciation and respect for what they go through, who they are and how they live. I work in a large metro hospital serving mainly the low-income African American population. Many people find it difficult (which it is), but I absolutely love it. It is my home.
I want to work as an NP managing HIV and primary care for these folks. Someday maybe on an international level. I get excited just thinking about it, and the closer I get (loving my clinicals), the more I see this is where I belong.
I think it may be easier to decide what it is you DON'T want, lol. I couldn't do maternity or peds, psych, ER or NICU. I have a very dear friend who will NOT do anything other than intensive care. She wants them all asleep when she takes care of them. I would go NUTS if I couldn't socialize with my patients, I love hearing their stories.
I specialized in cardiology nursing for years and loved it. Now I am doing Hospice at an inpatient facility and LOOK FORWARD to going to work. I get a thrill when I know that I have made a difference to someone who is dying.
I started out on a neurosurg/medsurg floor and liked my patinets but not the workload of the medsurg floor. I left that floor and did medsurg and I got tired of the heavy workload all the time and being depended on to be in charge and precept all the time. I decided to do what I always wanted to do. I left for a critical care floor. I decided since I was comfortable with neuro I would go to neuro ICU and I love it. So neuro ICU is my niche.
EmmaG, RN
2,999 Posts
God bless those who work with kids; I could never do it. I'm a complete mess when it comes to that...
My niche is oncology. I love it and even though I've worked other areas (for a short time here and there) I always come back to it.