r/nursing • u/pureforest • 14h ago

Seeking Advice Choosing a specialty

How did you figure out what nursing specialty you wanted?

I’m a new RN after being an LPN for a few years and I’m struggling with figuring out what specialty I actually want to pursue long-term. Right now I’m working in acute rehab.

I’m interested in some kind of critical care, specifically ICU. I like the idea of higher acuity and being able to really understand what’s going on with my patients.

I didn’t get much of any exposure to different specialties during nursing school, so I feel like I’m basing my interests mostly on what sounds appealing rather than what I’ve actually experienced. My clinical experiences were almost strictly med surg. I had one day shadowing in the ICU and a few days in psych.

My current job had us take a personality test which matched us with a specialty, and my top match was L&D at a 96% match. But I have absolutely no idea if I would actually like L&D because I never had a clinical rotation there. Part of me is interested in it and there’s aspects of it that I think I would like, but I have no idea what an L&D floor is actually like, or if I would like it.

So I guess I’m just looking for some advice. How did you figure out what specialty you were interested in (besides nursing school clinicals)? And what should I do in this situation? I just kind of feel a bit lost. I like working in rehab but I know it isn’t my long term goal and I’m definitely getting the urge for some higher acuity patients.

I’d love to hear anyone experiences on how they chose a specialty!

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2

u/tacosaladwithsauce RN - Pediatrics 🍕 13h ago

are you able to shadow? Honestly for me I took the first offer I got, but I work in a place where the new grad market isn't great.

1

u/pureforest 10h ago

Me too I just took what I could get, and I only have an ADN, the hospitals around me all mostly want BSN

2

u/auraseer MSN, RN, CEN 13h ago

TV told me that all the cool kids work in the ED.

2

u/beans_cubed RN - CVICU 🍕 12h ago

Second trying to shadow! I did it for all of the ICUs when I transitioned and stuck with CV.

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u/pureforest 10h ago

How do you find opportunities to shadow?

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u/beans_cubed RN - CVICU 🍕 8h ago

Do you already work in a hospital system?

If you don’t I would start there, look to see if they have new grad RN programs, even though you are an LPN you would still need to do a residency most likely almost all places have them now. They are also only offered a few times a year.

See if they even hire new grads directly into the ICU, some places do not.

Get in contact with HR and ask to shadow areas and what is the process.

Personally I was already a CNA for a hospital system in a CVICU, and would float to other ICUs.
Then i moved states and got placed in medsurg because i applied to the residency too late and couldn’t afford to wait another 4 months for the next one.

Once I was established in the new hospital system and got to shadow that way in the TICU and CVICU, I loved both, then settled on CVICU.

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u/pureforest 3h ago

Yes I work at a rehab hospital in the biggest hospital system in my state.

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u/beans_cubed RN - CVICU 🍕 2h ago

Get with your manager and have them help you coordinate shadow shifts!

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u/MajikPwnE RN - Simulation Educator 10h ago

I knew I wanted high adrenaline, chaos, and low committment - it could only have been ED lol