Which nursing areas are most in demand?

[sourapril]

For either experienced nurses or new grads

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

Please clarify. Are you wanting to know from the 'demand' (employer) side or areas that are most popular among nurses wanting to enter that field?

If you are talking in terms of jobs, there is generally more turnover & higher vacancy rates in med surg areas. Vacancies in specialty areas can vary widely, depending upon the geographic area and characteristics of the patient population.

If you are inquiring about popularity of clinical specialty areas.... I have found that this tends to vary depending upon who you ask & what is most important to that particular nurse. "Young ones" seem to find high-intensity areas (critical care, emergency dept, etc) more attractive, but older nurses (been there, done that) might place higher value on areas that have more patient interaction, greater autonomy or less physical workload.

[sourapril]

I am talking about which field has most job availability

[westieluv]

Hemodialysis nursing is a growing field because of the increasing number of people with unmanaged diabetes and hypertension secondary to an unhealthy, sedentary lifestyle and noncompliance with their diet and meds. Almost all cases of chronic renal failure result from unmanaged diabetes and hypertension.

Hemodialysis is a very specialized field, so unless you have been trained extensively in it (most dialysis nurses receive many months of orientation because it is a lot to learn and unlike any other field of nursing), you can't do it, meaning that a dialysis company cannot just call up a nursing agency and request "x" number of nurses to fill holes in the schedule like a med/surg floor on a hospital floor can.

Once you are trained in dialysis, you are a commodity and should be able to find work just about anywhere. It isn't glamorous, but there is an increasing need.

[brownbook]

My totally anecdotal evidence is OR because few nursing programs train an OR nurse and hospitals prefer to not have to pay for ???? 6 - 8 weeks of orientation to train an OR nurse. Plus there are a lot of out patient surgery centers opening up because anesthesia and surgery have become so much less invasive.

You could look at job postings and see what area, what kind of nursing, has the most help wanted posts?

Getting your foot in the door med/surg. is good. If you do get a "generic' med/surg job cross train, volunteer to float, as much as you can. I am working per diem per my preference and I sometimes get called into work over full time staff because I have always been willing to float.