Your Specialty & Why

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Hi all,

Im a pre-nursing student and just wondering how long you have been at your current specialty & why? Is there something about your personality that meshes with it? Life-altering experience? Accident? Is it where you thought you would be when you began nursing school? And what specialty, if so, would you like to work next and why?

Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.

My specialties (yes, specialties) have been :Rehab Nursing, Home Health, Peds, LTC, Nursing Informatics, and I dabbled in CC.

I guess, my specialty has been...Nursing. ;)

I'm actually back in Rehab/Post-Acute nursing both Peds and Adults-I like to take care of pts from cradle to twilight- and help manage their goals, whether they improve or expound on their abilities.

Granted, I've had many specialties because I am always willing to try something new; my practice and nursing knowledge transcends specialties-I have always been able to use the nursing process in every specialty I have worked in.

I don't know what will be my next specialty; a hiring director told me I have the personality of being an ER nurse-who knows? That may be a future specialty for me; either way, I'll be open to it. :yes:

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Specializes in NICU.

I currently work on a general surgery/onc unit...it was the first job I got out of school. I really like it right now because I learn so much, patient acuity is high, and I am learning all of my skills. My dream job would be ICU, PICU or NICU. Not sure which one yet. I hope I get there one day.

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Mother baby nurse here ! I love being apart of the most happiest times in a persons life. Mother baby isn't all roses and sunshine however my patients know I am available to them in any way they need me. The acuity for the most low. I will be here forever Lord willing.

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

loved peds. Endured adult care. Been in education x 15 years and feel I really belong here. Love to learn and watch others "get it".

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.

I am full time rapid response. I feel like this specialty was created just for me. I love it. I started off in ICU right out of my 9 months of nursing school. I was lucky to get hired into a very challenging and rigorous nurse residency program and received great training from the start. I have done SICU, burn ICU, MICU, CVICU, PICU, ER, and transport (ground and air ambulance) before. I liked each one more than the next until I got to RRT, then I knew what I was supposed to be doing as a nurse.

I love it that I have nothing to do until I have something interesting to do. No long med passes, no ADL's, no call lights, no bathing patients. I get a lot of opportunity to teach, and learn. I love it that I am not stuck on any one unit. Most of all I love the autonomy. With my standing orders and protocols I can pretty much handle most things on my own. My shifts seem to run in thirds. One third are CRAZY!, one third "normal" and one third I have almost nothing to do.

In the future I would love to get into education. I already am an instructor in my hospital's nurse residency program and enjoy it very much. I probably couldn't stand to take the huge pay cut teaching would cost me so probably in hospital education is where I should aim for.

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Specializes in LTC, med/surg, hospice.

I do med surg and outpatient radiology. No profound reasons behind it. I've also done hospice and I enjoyed my time there but it was also very emotionally demanding.

I originally wanted to be an oncology nurse and started out on a med/onc floor that slowly became a general medical floor once the outpatient cancer center was built. So that was squashed.

Anyway I would love to do preop/preassessment nursing. I love doing IVs and patient education. I like one on one time with patients.

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Specializes in Oncology/hematology.
Adult Oncology(with med/surg overflow) for 7 years. Did a rotation there during school and it just clicked. The patient population is special, and there are a ton of opportunities for learning(chemo cert, ommayas, etc). Both Onc floors I've worked have been considered to have the best nurses in the hospital. Kind of a lot of pressure, but I learn something every shift. We are also treated as inpatient hospice. Helping someone to die with dignity and comfort is an important thing.

I have the same feelings. I work oncology/hemotology. When I did my first clinical rotation there, everything just fell into place. I then did clinicals in many other specialties and my last, cardiac care, was interesting, but I just couldn't bring myself to go for that.

Ultimately, it comes down to me being too judgmental. :) I needed to work with a population that, for the most part, was handed a short straw and is dealing with it. Having a father that has created a ton of health problems for himself (cardiac mostly) and listening to his excuses for his bad behavior has made me hardened to that type of person. Other than smokers getting lung cancer, most cancer is just bad luck. And to watch the resiliency of these patients is just incredible. We occasionally get a little med/surg overflow and I will find myself so annoyed at the whininess of some of these people when I have someone in the next room with mets to the bone and in agony, who is worried about taking too many narcotics and will just take some Tylenol this time.

I could not handle working with kids because it would tear me up. I am always so amazed at those that do it and how good they are. We all have our "calling" and thank goodness we are all different.

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Specializes in NICU.

NICU. I didn't expect to want to work there when I started as a student, I wanted Peds ICU, but that isn't available in my area. However, through a bit of luck, I had more rotations in the NICU than usual and fell in love. It just stuck with me, I can't even put my finger on what drew me there. I worked medical with telemetry for my first 1.5years post graduation, but when an opportunity to apply to NICU came up, I took it. Those NICU babies that cry all. night. long. are trying, but I would HAPPILY take that over a confused 70 year old 6ft 2in gentleman setting off his bed exit alarm every 5 minutes all. night. long any day.

I love working with the family unit--as a NICU nurse, you aren't treating just the fragile newborn, but also the worried parents. I love the structured format of the unit. Cares are clustered with feeds (which are usually q3hrs), so you can pretty well figure out what your day is going to look like at the beginning of shift and go from there. I love the constant learning. I love how resilient these little ones are--they can come back from a lot!

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Specializes in Med-Surg.
Hi all,

Im a pre-nursing student and just wondering how long you have been at your current specialty & why? Is there something about your personality that meshes with it? Life-altering experience? Accident? Is it where you thought you would be when you began nursing school? And what specialty, if so, would you like to work next and why?

Med surg, 1.5 years. At work I am a very chatty person, I am able to interact with my patients in a way that I enjoy. I like the phase of care that I am able to participate in. I am able to see most of my patients get well and go home, I am able to prepare them for that. I like to organize in my personal life and this translates to work on med surg. Constant reorganization, prioritization. I am always busy, which fits me. I am constantly learning something new. On nights I am able to really dog through charts which helps me piece together a really good overall picture of my patients.

When I began nursing school (LVN first) I was a CNA in LTC and had no idea what kind of nurse I wanted to be. in clinicals I realized that I did not want ED, OR, L&D, or PEDs. That left ICU or med surg for me. I did know I wanted to be in the hospital. I got hired into med surg and LOVE it.

I have no current plans to move into any other area of nursing. Perhaps my mind will change after a while, and that's fine. I'm very content where I am now.

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I start my first quarter of nursing school in a month! (Yikes!) I plan on going into infectious disease. (I love bugs!) If something derails me between now and then I'm fine with it. I love to learn so I will probably specialize in a lot of things. Good luck to you in your studies!

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
I start my first quarter of nursing school in a month! (Yikes!) I plan on going into infectious disease. (I love bugs!) If something derails me between now and then I'm fine with it. I love to learn so I will probably specialize in a lot of things. Good luck to you in your studies!

It's great you are interested in infectious diseases. However I have never heard of a job for a regular RN in that area. Maybe others have and can correct me.

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I've read up on what they do. Seems like most work under an infectious disease physician. Although you bring up an excellent point that I should be looking a a realistic job market instead of blindly following my interests. Thanks for the tip!

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