What kind of nursing careers are there

Find Occupational Health Nurse Jobs. Whether you are getting diagnosed or treated for cancer care, oncology nurses are with you every step of the way. They help you look after your health while managing the condition. Find Oncology Nurse Jobs. For people who need healthcare in their final stages of living, a palliative care nurse can be a blessing.

They ensure that their patients endure less suffering, and maintain quality of life, as the end nears. Find Palliative Care Nurse Jobs. Nurses tend to be organized and clear headed.

In emergencies they must stay calm and provide care as required. Nursing in all its different forms is not for the squeamish. To be a nurse, it can help to have compassion for other people. Your empathy and positive attitude come into play regularly. One other note: shift work is quite common in nursing, especially for hospital settings.

Weekend work may also be required in hospitals. They often refer patients to and connect them with various support services. Focusing on the public health sector, these research nurses study, observe, and care for patients suffering from a variety of diseases. They also assist with and monitor clinical trials involving new medications or treatment methods.

Quality assurance nurses evaluate nursing practices to ensure efficiency and optimal patient care. They suggest and implement changes and train other nurses on new procedures. These nurses provide patient care for individuals undergoing radiology procedures. Radiology nurses assess preoperative patients, manage patient sedation and monitor vital signs during procedures, and care for patients post procedure.

Responsible for coordinating and providing patient care, registered nurses observe and assess patient conditions to create and implement holistic care plans. These nurses work in a variety of settings, including hospitals, clinics, and physicians' offices. Rehabilitation center nurses help patients recover and regain their independence following disability, illness, or injury. These nurses also teach patients and their families how to manage chronic injuries and illnesses.

Charged with planning and coordinating daily clinical schedules and procedures, research nurses collect vitals and samples and record data accordingly. These nurses focus on patients who participate in clinical trials to improve their health, including individuals testing new cancer treatments. Ensuring individuals in rural communities can obtain access to quality healthcare, rural nurses work in labor and delivery, trauma, and critical care settings.

They provide care for sick or injured patients across the lifespan. School nurses address student healthcare needs and problems, and educate them about health risks. School nurses also respond to health emergencies requiring CPR or other types of immediate care.

A staff nurse encompasses a myriad of frontline nurses. Typically working in long-term care facilities and hospitals, staff nurses assess and evaluate patients, administering care and medications as needed. Those employed in hospitals also create patient discharge plans. Surgery nurses are responsible for caring for patients undergoing operative procedures, administering medications, changing patients' dressings, monitoring their vital signs, assessing their conditions, and maintaining patient records throughout surgical procedures.

Often working closely with poison control hotlines to effectively triage and assist in managing patients exposed to toxins, these nurses assess significant patient symptoms, provide treatment recommendations, and facilitate referrals to appropriate healthcare facilities. They also provide ongoing patient evaluation and follow-up care.

Transplant nurses care for patients who need an organ transplant. They help coordinate tests and appointments needed while a patient is waiting for an organ to become available for transplant, guide patients and families through the organ transplant process, and create treatment plans for recovering patients.

These nurses work as contract employees either through an agency or self-employment, filling in at clinics, hospitals, and private practices around the country and sometimes internationally. Travel nurses perform the same general responsibilities as RNs.

These research nurses plan, develop, implement, and evaluate vaccine-related research projects. These nurses must hold master's degrees in nursing along with additional training in research methodology and tools. The nursing field comprises an expansive array of career opportunities.

Many of these paths allow professionals to go beyond bedside care and traditional workplace settings, such as hospitals and private practices. Nontraditional positions include toxicology nurses, prison nurses, and nutrition and fitness nurses.

Nurses can also explore opportunities as travel nurses , filling in for other professionals across the country and internationally. Nurses interested in following a nontraditional pathway can watch the video below to learn more about the options available to them.

Brandy Gleason is a nursing professional with nearly twenty years of varied nursing experience. Gleason currently teaches as an assistant professor of nursing within a prelicensure nursing program and coaches graduate students.

Her passion and area of research centers around coaching nurses and nursing students to build resilience and avoid burnout. Gleason is a paid member of our Healthcare Review Partner Network.

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Share this. Featured Online Programs. Related Resources. An emergency room nurse will treat patients experiencing trauma or injury in a hospital ER. They will encounter a variety of conditions and have to stabilize patients dealing with traumatic events and injuries. This position would be good for someone who can handle high stress scenarios and find it rewarding to be a presence of calm amidst chaos. While not technically nurses, nursing assistants work closely with patients under the direction of nursing staff.

They provide personal care for patients, including helping them bathe, get dressed, use the bathroom, eat and more. Becoming a nursing assistant is a great entry point for those looking to get a taste of the nursing field. Operating room OR nurses , also referred to as perioperative nurses or scrub nurses, care for patients before, during and after surgery.

These nurses also equip patients and their families for postoperative care. This is a good fit for someone empathetic to the stress of surgery on individuals and families.

Nurse case managers coordinate long-term care for patients in hopes of keeping them healthy and out of the hospital. They can choose to specialize in treating people with diseases, like cancer, or can choose to work with a specific age group, such as geriatrics. You should consider becoming a nurse case manager if you enjoy research, coordination and scheduling.

A home health nurse cares for patients in the comfort of their own homes. Often times, these patients are in geriatric care or young people with developmental or mobility issues. This is an ideal position for someone looking to work outside of a traditional hospital setting, but still enjoys working with patients.

Post-anesthesia care unit PACU nurses work with patients as they regain consciousness from anesthesia after surgery. Also known as perianesthesia nurses, they are prepared to handle patients who react aversely, wake up in pain or confusion or experience other problems.

PACU nurses are a comforting presence to those coming out of anesthesia and can offer tips for their recovery. NICU nurses care for premature and critically ill newborns in the neonatal intensive care unit of a hospital. They care for infants needing immediate medical attention, connect them to life-giving technology and comfort them when they are in distress.

Staff nurses work in a variety of settings including rehab centers, critical care, psychiatric and outpatient facilities. They provide direct patient care, administer medications, perform IV therapy and more. Staff nurses often have the opportunity to advance and supervise other medical staff, like RNs or LPNs. Those with strong leadership skills may want to consider this option.

Labor and delivery nurses help welcome new lives into the world every day. They care for both mother and baby throughout the process of labor, childbirth and even after birth. A labor and delivery nurse may aid in inducing labor, administering epidurals, timing contractions and educating the mother with nursing advice after the baby is born.

Oncology nurses provide care for cancer patients and those at risk of the disease. They monitor physical conditions, prescribe medication and administer chemotherapy and other treatments. This is a good fit for someone interested in a challenging, yet rewarding, career that is research-oriented. Nurse managers oversee the nurses on the floor who care for patients. They wear many hats and handle a lot of administrative duties. Sometimes called nurse supervisors, they are often responsible for recruitment and retention of nurses, as well as occasionally collaborating with doctors on patient care and assisting families in need.

This is a great option for those hoping to step away from direct patient care after gaining some experience in the field. Sometimes called progressive care nurses, these professionals work in the telemetry unit of a hospital, where patients are often in critical condition and are in need of constant care and observation.

These nurses work in the pediatric department of a clinic or hospital, which specializes in treating children from infants to teenagers.

Pediatric nurses carry out all of the typical nursing duties, as well as administering vaccinations and treating common ailments that are common in children.