Why did you choose to be an Acute Care Nurse Practitioner??

Advanced Practice Columnist / Guide · Aug 31, 2007

Just because of the fact that most of my nursing career prior to becoming an APN was spent in adult acute care settings so I thought I'd build up on that background. In the past, I have made attempts to leave the acute care setting and settle for a less fast-paced environment but I end up missing the routines and then finding myself wanting to come back to working in the hospital.

I feel that I thrive well in this crazy, high-stress environment. As for the future, when I find myself having to slow down from aging, I plan to still focus my work efforts on the field of medical-surgical nursing or adult critical care just maybe not in clinical practice but probably doing either teaching or research.

Pros and cons are what you make them out to be, I think. I know that in my current field, the hours are not your typical 9-5 routine but I still get a lot of personal time to spend away from work. Stressful situations are quite frequent but you learn to deal with them. Another thing that I like about being in an acute care setting is that you have all sorts of resources at your immediate disposal including easy access to experts for consultations and availability of hi-tech diagnostic procedures and lab tests.