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With healthcare becoming extremely complex, majority of nurses are thus deciding to streamline their focus on one specialized aspect of nursing. There are numerous benefits that come with specializing such as recognition, respect, career satisfaction, job security and better salary potential.
If you are contemplating what specialty to choose, then you can ask yourself some questions listed below to gauge what specialty is suitable for you.
1. Determine your interest and personality type?
All nursing environments have their own dedicated environment and pace, so it is advisable to choose one that matches your personality type. This way, you will be able to fit in comfortably performing your best in general.
Few things to ponder upon:
Do you desire an adrenaline rush, have the ability to deal with unexpected situations or face challenges constantly? If yes, an emergency department or trauma center will be the right choice for you.
Similarly, if you have a knack for details, or follow a methodical regime, then a career in clinical research will be viable for you. Similarly, you need to also ponder upon what you prefer beyond the scope of your work? Are you inclined towards nutrition or have an affinity for children? There are thus a variety of nursing specialties that will allow you to amalgamate your personal interest and career choices.
2. How Do You Engage and Interact with People?
Well, some nurses are naturally introverts by nature and do not find solace in meeting new people. This essentially means that you may not be a people's person. However, you might be great with numbers, have amazing analytical skills, prefer working in quieter environments or are good listeners. Regardless, understanding your personality trait will help you in choosing your specialty wisely.
If you are an introvert the following nursing specialties are best suited for you: legal nursing consultant, forensics nurse, research nurse, or Informatics specialist. Likewise, for extroverts, the nursing specialties are emergency nurse, surgical nurse, pediatrics nurse, ICU nurse or family nurse practitioner.
3. You Want To Work A Day-to-Day Job
It is believed that what your every work schedule may look like should tie perfectly with your personality trait. For instance, you have innate leadership ability, you will make an amazing nursing manager or may also become a nursing executive.
Similarly, do you want to work with patients closely or wish to work away from the bedside? Irrespective, there are a variety of nursing specialties that enable you to make use of your clinical knowledge without actively engaging in patient care.
Some nursing activities that do not involve bedside care are education, infection control and prevention, informatics, and case management.
4. What's Your Preferred Work Setting?
Nurses have the leverage of working at many non-hospital settings. This includes public health, schools, rescue helicopters, correctional facilities, industrial sites, labs, as well as physicians clinics. Some nurses are also deputed at offsite clinics by their hospitals.
If you even decide to choose a more conventional hospital setting, you may want to consider your desired setting before picking a specialty. There are visible differences between delivery room, ICU and psychiatric unit nurses as all work on different paces and environment. This has an impact on the type of interaction you will have with physicians, caregivers and patients.
5. Are You Able To Deal With Pressure?
Those jobs that are labor intensive or more demanding come with more prestige and better wages such as a chief nursing officer or a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist. The career benefits tend to be extremely rewarding for those who are willing to meet challenges upfront.
However, the question here remains that how much stress can you actually deal with? Can you manage being on call 24/7 serving the transplant team or as a surgical nurse. Of you work stressful or long hours, your stress levels are likely to be higher. Moreover, you are likely to struggle with maintaining work and home life balance. Therefore, you need to weigh in the pros and cons, alongside taking your present support system into consideration and thus choose a specialty that is high pressure.
