How many jobs/units until you found your "niche"

3 Hi everyone,

I noticed there are many many nurses in this forum. This can be fun or not but I wanted to know how many jobs/units did you endure before you found your "niche" and what unit. Looking back are you glad you went through it, did it make you a more versatile nurse? I know of a few managers who would tell me their stories of what they went through to get to where they are. I hope this post would be inspiring and give hope to those that feel like they just can't find theirs.

Thanks in advance,
=0)
I don't think a niche has to mean staying in one place. My niche is pediatrics but I've held several jobs within that field.

I think I found my niche as a PediED nurse.I started out in home care as a private duty pediatric nurse to help sharpen my decision making skills and teach families, as well as work with conditions and populations in the community setting; I also worked in Rehab with SCI and TBI and traumatic injuries and learned a lot about the nervous system, learned how to advocate and help empower individuals who were suddenly not able to walk or had limited function.I worked in Ambulatory Care with Orthopedic surgeons; learned how to cast and educate individuals and families on DME and crutch teaching.I also worked with a contractor to evaluate CMS reviews-nursing informatics; it helped me get an inside look on what CMS looks for in terms of documentation; I learned the gravity of excellent documentation vs not so great documentation; I saw better nursing documentation than physician documentation. I worked at a medical daycare with special needs; learned how to incorporate education and adjust to the needs of the individual child.I dabbled in working on a PICU floor; learned how to adjust to rapidly changing acuity in a critical care setting.I have also been a nursing home supervisor; I learned how to make assignments, talk to peers in a leadership role; focused assessments and identify when people are sick w/o a monitor, and how to deal with challenging personalities and working closely with physicians, and decision-making in a leadership position. Each of these areas helped shape my nursing practice; it also helped me create a foundation of my nursing judgement; I work in an area where I have to teach, make decisions depending on acuity, and manage challenging personalities.All my skill sets are able to transcend and transfer to any niche I want; but so far, I think I belong where I am right now.

After nine years in nursing, I have not quite found my niche yet. Although I am certified in my specialty and have stayed put for the better part of five years, I know in my heart I'll never be happy providing direct patient care.I think I'll find my niche in a desk job role (case management, hospital unit educator, infection control nurse, utilization review nurse, etc) but that remains to be seen.

Sorry, this is not really inspiring....but my only "niche" was to get off nights, every other weekend, holidays, after doing it for 17 years. Working in out patient surgery meets those needs!I enjoyed many of those 17 years. It was always acute care bedside nursing. Out side of the "lousy" hours my niche was to always be the one to volunteer to float. We didn't have an official float pool on nights so I was the unofficial floater. They always knew I'd say yes. I learned a little about a lot of things...I was definitely the Jack of all trades, master of none, type of nurse. I really liked the variety....getting away from the gossip and complaining of my home unit...hearing the gossip and complaining of new units.Even now as a per diem nurse I am called in when full time staff are cancelled because there are procedures I will do that full time staff can't or wont. (But boy do the complain about losing their hours!)I really enjoy out patient surgery but it is hard to say if I would like it as much if for some reason it was nights, every other weekend, holidays, etc.

I'm still working in the same OR where I started as a new grad. However, I've moved around between the specialty teams, and I think I've finally found my home on team #4.

Quote from KelRN215I don't think a niche has to mean staying in one place. My niche is pediatrics but I've held several jobs within that field.

4 jobs:Med-Surg x 3 years. Gave me panic attacks. Made me crazy that I couldn't take care of my patients as I wanted to and should have been able to. Could never have achieved my subsequent positions without that experience to build upon. Ambulatory Surgery Center (Pain Management) x 9 months. Medical Director was stealing Alfenta & Fentanyl. Other practitioner was verbally & physically abusive. Went to work in fear every single day, worried that the "new nurse" would be blamed for narc shortages. Learned very little except how to duck when a spinal needle was thrown at me. Private Orthopedic Practice x 5 years. Learned so much about not only ortho bmut the process of prepping a medically complicated patient for surgery. Specialty pre-op clearances, medication issues, etc.ASC, specializing in pre-op preparation. My dream job. My niche. Bores the crap out of most everyone else

Quote from Rose_QueenI'm still working in the same OR where I started as a new grad. However, I've moved around between the specialty teams, and I think I've finally found my home on team #4.

I was fairly certain in nursing school that I wanted to work with geriatric patients which is what I've been doing ever since. Currently, I'm a unit manager in a 500 bed LTC. I have anywhere from 36-70 residents plus the staffing complement.

Quote from kloneLike Kel, I've held several jobs within my niche of women's health/OB/Gyn. I've worked bedside in L&D, mother/baby, level 2 NICU, I've done lactation consulting, both in and outpatient. I've done research specializing in antepartum, L&D and NICU. And I currently work outpatient as a supervisor of an OB/Gyn clinic.If by "niche" you mean the one job you would be happy doing the rest of your career, well...still haven't found that. After a few years, I get bored doing the same thing and need to learn something different/new. But I can't see myself working anywhere besides women's health.

Still looking for a plush, top-floor, corner office job paying northward of seven figures with scheduled naps q 1 hour with a bottomless bowl of M&M's.Actually, I'd like to head up an informatics department before too long. Was always decently proficient at computers, and would enjoy customizing programs to make them more user-friendly for the nurses in the trenches.

I found my niche on my fourth job, after five years. Two years on general medical/telemetry, two years on oncology and 1 year on hematology, bone marrow transplant. At that point, my brand new manager "volunteered me" to move to MICU. (I was the last nurse left on the unit who had more nursing experience than her, and she had already "volunteered" the other three to transfer within the system.) ICU is definitely my niche, and I've been working in various ICUs across the country for 35 years, or thereabouts. I love the intensity, the flexible scheduling and the opportunities to learn and grow.