A Guide to Nursing Specialties for Your Medical Career
If ever there was a time to say, with the utmost confidence, that the healthcare industry is a great one to get into if you want job security, that time is now. COVID has taken it’s toll on almost all industries, but (obviously, and sadly) the healthcare industry is going strong. Nurses and doctors are being heralded as heroes, and they certainly deserve it, providing therapeutic communication to those affected mentally and physically by COVID, and spending every day of the pandemic helping others.
Nursing specialties are aplenty, and if you’re interested in a career in the vast field of nursing, narrowing your search by specialty can help you find a path that best fits your needs and wants when it comes to pursuing a career in healthcare. Here is a guide to some interesting nursing specialties that are in demand right now.
Travel Nurse
Travel nurses work for agencies that get tasked to fill gaps in nursing throughout the country. If you’re interested in seeing the world, this path may be for you. You must get your RN first, but then applying to one of the hundreds of agencies in the U.S. is just like applying for any other job. If hired, you will be given options for placement throughout the country to fill temporary gaps like those for maternity and paternity leave, or just places that need an uptick in nursing services due to a disaster or something of the like.
ER Nurse
Not for the faint-hearted, ER nurses assist doctors in emergency rooms with urgent care. This is a very fast-paced job that has a lot of reward, as lives are saved every day thanks to ER nurses. However, not all patients can be saved, and ER nurses must be mentally prepared to move past deaths when they do occur.
Forensic Nurse
Forensic nurses must first become RNs, and then seek out a bit more education relating to law enforcement. The primary functions of forensic nurses involve determining the causes of harm to victims, collecting information on a victim’s injuries to be used in courts of law, and also testifying as professional witness in those same courts.
Oncology Nurse
Oncology is the practice of caring for cancer patients, so nurses in this field tend to see the same patients on a regular basis throughout their care with things like chemotherapy. As the baby boomer generation reaches the ages where cancer is common, there is expected to be a large need for these nurses in the coming years.
Nurse Anesthetist
These specially trained nurses have a pretty defined role in the meticulous task of properly administering anesthesia to patients who are about to enter operating rooms. Quality nurse anesthetists are well-versed in treating patients with positivity and helping them get into the right mindset for surgery, as well as delivering the right amount of anesthesia. As a bonus, these nurses also tend to get paid very well compared to other types of nurses.
Psychiatric Nurse
For aspiring nurses who are interested in mental health of their patients more than physical health, a career in psychiatric nursing might be a perfect fit. You help patients deal with depression, anxiety, PTSD, and a number of other mental illnesses that can often lead to many other ailments, both mental and physical.
An online degree in mental health nursing will help you become successful in this specialty.
Nurse Midwife
Another nurse job that tends to carry a slightly larger paycheck than its counterparts, nurse midwives assist in labor and delivery, as well as with pre and postnatal care for mothers. If you like babies, this is the job for you.
Wrap-Up
This list is, by no means, exhaustive, and there are many, many more specialties, and even specialties within those specialties, but this list displays those fields that expect to have an influx of job openings in the coming years!
