Why do you love your specialty so much?

ruby_jane, BSN, RN · Feb 11, 2019

1 hour ago, AbbyLane said:
I'm wrapping up my last year at my local community college as I am almost done with my prerequisites. The next time is to apply for programs! I am so excited and nervous to take this next step ?
My mother loathes the bedside position at the hospital - she loves working in home health. She feels more independent for obvious reasons and she loves being out and about during the day driving to see her patients. She's been doing it for 10+ years and loves it. She said the patient to nurse ratio was just crap at our local hospitals and that she was just so burnt out - it sounds like a lot of the stories I hear up here haha.
Thanks in advanced for anyone who comments!

Best of luck to you. Not all of us are cut out to be acute care nurses - although you will likely make a stop in acute care-ville for a year or so. I also disliked my ICU experience but I love public health and school nursing. As for HHN....well, I applaud your mom because I'm not brave enough.

Remember that your lived experience will be different than hers, or mine. Go in with an open mind. Learn what you can. Practice competently.

RNperdiem, RN · Feb 11, 2019

Sometimes it is not entirely up to the specialty. The love can come from a good group of coworkers, good management, a shift that works with your health, and many other small variables. Each individual nurse brings their own expectations and coping skills to each job. In a hospital there is a lot of overlap in bedside hospital jobs.

I started out in med-surg because that was the department that was hiring. I saw the job as a good entry-level job to get started.

AbbyLane · Feb 11, 2019

50 minutes ago, ruby_jane said:
Best of luck to you. Not all of us are cut out to be acute care nurses - although you will likely make a stop in acute care-ville for a year or so. I also disliked my ICU experience but I love public health and school nursing. As for HHN....well, I applaud your mom because I'm not brave enough.
Remember that your lived experience will be different than hers, or mine. Go in with an open mind. Learn what you can. Practice competently.

Thank you I appreciate that! I heard that ICU nursing is hard...and I mean I suppose that makes sense. School nursing must be so nice ? I love children. It would be nice getting to know the kids at school and having a lot of the same patients/children over again and getting to watch them grow.

HH is a lot but it just fits her lifestyle more. She does not do well under pressure like she did at a hospital (and I know right? why become a nurse if you fear stress haha) She says HH is still stressful of course but there's something about being in the patients home or there "comfort zone" that not only relaxes her patients but her as well. The vibe is just totally different and being able to give patients her whole attention one at a time in a place where they are comfortable makes her feel like she's doing a good job and that she is more appreciated ? She tried hospice once but it just wasn't for her.

And yes! That's what I'm planning on doing ? thank you for the advice!!

AbbyLane · Feb 11, 2019

1 hour ago, RNperdiem said:
Sometimes it is not entirely up to the specialty. The love can come from a good group of coworkers, good management, a shift that works with your health, and many other small variables. Each individual nurse brings their own expectations and coping skills to each job. In a hospital there is a lot of overlap in bedside hospital jobs.
I started out in med-surg because that was the department that was hiring. I saw the job as a good entry-level job to get started.

True, I think it's such a blessing to be at a place where co-workers, managers, and the very higher ups get along. Especially in something as stressful as being a nurse or just being in the hospital in general. And is med-surg something most new grads go into? If so can you tell me why that is? I feel like a lot of newbies on here go to med-surg first.

Thank you for commenting!

lovingtheunloved, ASN, RN · Feb 11, 2019

I currently work in a pulmonary step down unit and love it. I’m blessed to have good management, typically safe staffing, and a great team. I love seeing patients come in very sick, and leave breathing a lot better.

I did LTACH for two years and that was by far my very favorite job. If the unit hadn’t closed I would still be doing that!

I did home health for five years, and honestly didn’t love it. It was fine I guess, but it bored me. I enjoyed the one on one with patients, bu I loathed the constant noncompliance that ended up in hospitalization, which I was then expected to answer for. You can teach and teach till you’re blue in the face (and document!) but people are going to do what they want. At least in the hospital I have some degree of control. Or perceived control!

My first seven years were in a SNF for Alzheimer’s patients. Poor management which is typical of those places, horrible staffing, but adored my residents. I learned a lot about myself and the world there, but will never do that again.

Nursing can be so hard, but so amazing. Take care of yourself first. Keep yourself physically and emotionally healthy. Don’t take any crap from people. But give your all to the people in your care. Best job in the world!

Iheartwoundcare, MSN, APRN, NP · Feb 12, 2019

What an exciting time for you!!! I myself have worked in med-surg, neuro and stroke rehabilitation and outpatient wound care. I do not care for the inpatient hospital setting. Nurse to patient ratios can be ridiculous. I (as my username implies) am a CWCN and I LOVE IT. I love Wound Care. There is so much involved in healing a wound, be it arterial, venous, diabetic, burn or trauma related. The different disciplines I consult with all have a hand in the healing process.

I also love the outpatient setting because the hours are so much better. I can drop my kiddo off in the morning and pick him up from the bus stop in the afternoon. This is great for me because I am currently in an FNP program.

Good luck to you!

PeakRN · Feb 14, 2019

The hard thing is that what people find rewarding changes so much individually. My nightmare is probably adult med/surg, home health, or any kind of nursing home however there are nurses who are great at their job and find a lot of satisfaction in these specialties.

I will warn you about psych in particular, inpatient psych isn't a very therapeutic environment. This isn't to say that psych nursing is bad, but it isn't the same as you might think and will be very different from most of your intro to psych classes. Generally speaking inpatient psych is about keeping patients safe and med stabilizing patients who are too unsafe to participate in PHPs or outpatient therapy.

I'm a bit ADHD so I work all throughout the hospital, although the ED is my home. I love the variety of patients that we get, from birth through death, rashes to STEMIs, med refills to multi-systems trauma. There is never a patient too sick, too poor, too young, or too old; we don't turn anyone away. I also like that generally I only have my patients for a few hours until they are discharged, admitted, or transferred. I don't like that we often see the worst of society be it NATs, rape victims, the chonically mentally ill that we as a society leave on the streets, the kids and young adults who die way to young.

I like the ICUs and PICU because of the depth of knowledge that is needed to care for patients with significant disease process. I enjoy having critical patients who really need my full attention. I also like in most critical care areas the medical providers really value the bedside nurses experience and insight when it comes to the patient's disease.

I generally prefer peds over adults. Many adult patients live in their disease states, most kids just want to be kids despite their disease. Peds is much harder when we make a devastating diagnosis, and it can be hard to not take that home at the end of the day.

I fully support new grads going into a specialty if they prefer it, nursing is becoming so sub-specialized that even experience in one med/surg unit isn't going to necessarily prepare you to work in another. That being said there will also be a part where often the job market for new grads are tight, and you can't wait forever to find the perfect job.

mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN · Feb 14, 2019

I am an orthopedic nurse and I love it!!! When I went into school, I thought I wanted to do peds. When Isaw my first child go into resp distress, I knew I was not going to be able to handle it (my kids were 6 & 9 at the time).

My first job was in an ortho rehab unit and I fell in love with it. I am now in a large teaching hospital (my dream job) on the ortho floor and I still love it 6 years later. I even finished my MSN in Informatics and have chosen to stay on the floor.

I have, myself, a long hx of ortho injuries/sx, so I can relate in a major way to what my pts are going through. I understand pain. The pts really appreciate it when you can tell them your experience and it matches theirs.

cardiacfreak, ADN · Feb 15, 2019

I worked cardiac for 18 years and loved it, I never thought I'd leave. I loved the adrenaline rush during codes, and I loved to teach. I got to old to keep at a running pace. My body hurt every time I got out of bed. And then there was a demand for management to have a BSN, and since I have an associates degree, well....nevermind.

I now work hospice as an on call nurse, and I have really found my niche I get to teach, spend time with the patient and family, and being on call I still get a little adrenaline rush when the phone rings at 0200 and someone is in distress.

It is never a dull moment when I get a call and it always seems like an adventure, especially when your GPS takes you to the wrong place. Hospice is not for everyone but that is what is great about nursing, there is a speciality for everyone.

"nursy", RN · Feb 15, 2019

This is a tough one to answer because not only do you change as a nurse as your career progresses, but nursing itself changes over time. My first job, 40 years ago, was in ICU, and I loved it. My most recent job was in ICU and I hated it. Everything has changed: staffing ratios, pt/family expectations, management support, etc. I was a PICC nurse as an independent contractor for 15 years. Totally loved it. Putting in PICCs was a piece of cake, small sterile field, gloves and mask, 20 minutes and out the door. Now it's a major production, with the patient draped head to toe, nurse in sterile garb with cap, mask, sterile gown, a witness to make sure you don't break sterility, much more paperwork, etc. (all necessary, but makes things harder). When I did home health in the beginning, the paperwork was minimal and if you got a patient that needed IV antibiotics every 6 hours, you were there every 6 hours, for the duration of the therapy. You didn't need too many patients to make the big bucks, and most of the time you finished your paperwork and then watched TV with the patient. Then it became, "you're allowed 3 visits, teach the patient to self infuse". So you needed to see a lot more patients and do a lot more sign ups to make the same money, and you were always teaching, and the paperwork mushroomed out of control. Now I am a school nurse and I love it...but I can tell you, straight out of school, I would have hated it, because I would have felt that I was missing out on the exciting stuff in ICU and ER. Other than choosing ICU for my first job, I pretty much fell into all my other jobs, and loved all of them. But when I was in nursing school, I had no clue. After my surgical rotation I knew I couldn't do that simply because I cannot just stand all day (I can run around all day, just not stand). I thought I would love psych, but ended up not liking it pretty much for the reasons stated by previous poster. But another thing you may want to think about is lifestyle. Do you want to work 3 twelves and every other weekend, or do you want Mon-Fri with weekends off? Do you need to make top dollar or would you be happy with less money and maybe less stress. Do you everntually want to go into management? If you decide you do want NP, by all means do ICU and/or med surg so you can get a lot of varied experience on board. Anyway, a lot to think about.....good luck!

Golden_RN, MSN · Feb 15, 2019

I worked tele as a new grad and didn't like it. Cardiac stuff just never interested me.

I love long term care (I worked on a rehab floor, as an MDS coordinator, wound nurse) because I like the long term relationships we make with the people we care for.