Trusted Guide to Nursing Specialties

When you commit to the nursing profession, you’re not just committing yourself to caring for others, you’re committing yourself to doing so within a specific area of nursing. Just like you chose to study nursing in school instead of the many other options out there, you must also choose what kind of nurse you want to be.

This decision isn’t necessarily an easy one, but it’s also not an irreversible decision either. In the same way you can change your college major, you can similarly change your nursing specialty. That said, when deciding on an initial specialty, you need to think carefully about it.

There is a lot that goes into choosing a nursing specialty: education requirements, career advancement, responsibilities, salary, work setting, patient population, and even the most common diagnoses you’ll see on a daily basis.

There Is a Lot That Goes Into Choosing a Nursing Specialty

With so much to consider (like types of nurses from Critical Care Nurse to Informatics Nurse to Nurse Educator and more), where do you begin? Let’s start with the what.

What Are Nursing Specialties?

Put simply, nursing specialties represent specific areas of nursing expertise. As you know by now the human body, how it works, and all the external factors that affect it are complex. Despite all you’ll learn in nursing school and must know for the NCLEX, everything about every area of healthcare and in professional practice is simply too large a task for anyone.

‍

Accordingly, just as in medicine there are different specialties that doctors will commit to, so too must nurses choose an area to specialize in. Nursing specialties can vary by patient age or demographic, type of care given, location of care given, and numerous other factors.

Some nurses even choose to work as travel nurses, gaining a variety of experience across these factors within a specialty (here is some data we collected on choosing a travel nurse specialty).

‍

Some common specialties you’ve definitely heard of? Intensive Care Unit Nurse (ICU) or Emergency Department Nurse (ED/ER). These specialties are typically held by Registered Nurses or RNs, while some other common specialties are actually held by Advanced Practice Nurse Practitioners; for example, Family Nurse Practitioner, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, or Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner.

‍

Who Works in Different Nursing Specialties?

Short answer? Licensed Practical Nurses/Licensed Vocational Nurses (LPN/LVNs), Registered Nurses (RNs), Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs), and Doctors of Nursing Practice (DNPs)… really all nurses! As mentioned above, nurses work in all areas of healthcare, and the types of specialties available to you differ based upon your nursing school experience and education level. While there are dozens of nursing specialties that begin with RN requirements, there are plenty of others that require advanced degrees, either Masters Degrees in Nursing or even Doctorate Degrees in Nursing (DNPs or PhDs).

‍

Accordingly, there are additional nurse practitioner specialties that are only available to nurses who’ve achieved a certain level of education.

Why Choose a Nursing Specialty?

We all know that education can be expensive, not to mention it can take away significant time from work. So, why commit to choosing a specialty, particularly one that requires further education? There are many reasons.

‍

A big factor here is that in order to get a job you have to go work within a certain specialty or specialty group. Another is to align your professional work and what you do with what you're most interested in and passionate about!

However, if your driver is not to pursue a particular medical interest (mental health, for example), it might be to support a specific demographic (which can greatly affect the type of patient care you give); if it’s not that, it might be to have more job opportunities (more specialized roles are often in higher demand) or even receive a higher salary.

‍

There are plenty of reasons to pursue a specialty, but your reason (or reasons) will be just that, your own reasoning for choosing what path you want to follow. No one can answer that question for you, it simply takes time and a lot of thought.

View All Specialties

Here’s What You Should Focus On:

In the following resources, we’ll take a look at numerous specialty resources to help you decide which one is the best fit for you. We’ll cover in depth the various components of nursing specialties to keep in mind as you browse your options.

What

Do the patient population, care setting, delivery model, and diagnoses found within this specialty interest you, is it something you want to learn more about?

Education Requirements

Do you have the educational requirement necessary to work in a given role within this specialty? If not, are they attainable for you, and would you be interested in pursuing them?

Care Advancement

Is there a clear career pathway within the specialty? Do you have interest in pursuing additional certifications and experience within this specialty? Does the experience align with your career goals?

Certifications

Do you have the certifications required for this specialty? Are you committed to completing them and keeping them up to date?

Salary

Does the salary feel fair for the work? Will the salary support your lifestyle or cost of living? Family needs, etc?

Specialty Responsibilities

Are you interested in the procedures, types of patient interactions, makeup of the interdisciplinary team you'd be a part of, and the tools and technologies you'd be using (or lack thereof)?

Common Diagnoses

Are you interested in seeing, discussing with, and treating patients with the most common diagnoses in this specialty?

Care Setting

Where you’re working can be just as important as what you’re doing!Do you think you would thrive in a fast-paced setting seeing a multitude of patients in a day, like the ER? Or would you rather build relationships with the same patients in the inpatient setting?

Explore Nursing Specialties

Click through on the cards below to read an in-depth guide to each nursing specialty.

CVICU Nurse

A CVICU, or cardiovascular intensive care unit nurse, specializes in the care of critically ill patients with heart and vascular problems.

Trusted Guide to Nursing Specialties

There Is a Lot That Goes Into Choosing a Nursing Specialty

What Are Nursing Specialties?

Who Works in Different Nursing Specialties?

Why Choose a Nursing Specialty?

Here’s What You Should Focus On:

What

Education Requirements

Care Advancement

Certifications

Salary

Specialty Responsibilities

Common Diagnoses

Care Setting

Explore Nursing Specialties

CVICU Nurse

Cath Lab Nurse

Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM)

Clinical Nurse Educator

Critical Care Nurse

Dialysis Nurse

Emergency Department Nurse (ED)

Forensic Nurse

Home Health Nurse

Hospice Nurse

Informatics Nurse

Labor & Delivery Nurse

Legal Nursing Consultant

Med-Surg Nurse

Neonatal Intensive Care Nurse (NICU)

Nurse Advocate

Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA)

Nurse Practitioner (NP)

Obstetrics Nurse

Oncology Nurse

Operating Room (OR) Nurse

Orthopedic Nurse

PACU Nurse

PICU Nurse

Pediatric Nurse

Perioperative Nurse

Postpartum Nurse

Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner

Psychiatric/Mental Health Nurse

Telemetry Nurse

Utilization Review Nurse

Wound Care Nurse

Further Resources

Nurse Advocates: Championing Trusted Travel Nurses & Allied Health Professionals Through Expert Guidance

Top 15 Nurse Bloggers and Influencers

Let's start building the life you want.

We're here to help