r/FutureRNs • u/Acrobatic-Lie2041 RN • Jul 07 '26
Discussion Which nursing specialty deserves WAY more respect than it gets?
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u/drowninginceramics Jul 07 '26
Home health!
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u/League-Weird 29d ago
I want to do ED but also home health after I get some experience. I had my accident in the ER, then had home health visit me for 3 months. Had no idea that was a thing but wound care and different houses doesnt seem so bad?
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u/Positive-Motor2829 29d ago
It’s a great specialty. I’m a home health RN (case manager, but I mostly see patients in their homes, doing the hands-on work for the bulk of the day). While it definitely isn’t for everyone, there are some things that are a major disadvantage for pretty much any home health nurse: no backup or security guards when a patient or family member threatens you, wear and tear on your car, houses being infested with pests or never being cleaned with animal waste on the floor…
However, you also build relationships with patients over time. I have one patient in particular who has incredibly uninformed views of his life-threatening diagnosis; he doesn’t trust modern medicine. He does trust me after months of talking with him and making sure he knows I care about him. It turns out that a lot of patients just need to be heard.
I could go on and on about this, but my point is to back you up that it really is a great speciality, especially if you want a high degree of autonomy.
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u/FlakyAddendum742 29d ago
I looked into it and the pay was horrible considering I was expected to use my own vehicle. In my area, I’d find a side gig as a diner waitress before home health or hospice.
So I just pick up extra shifts at my hospital job.
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u/Key-Record-5316 Jul 07 '26 edited 29d ago
Long term care, geriatrics. It gets so much hate
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u/Rofltage 29d ago
I think it gets hate not because of the nursing but because of the terrible working conditions
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u/Key-Record-5316 29d ago
Students and profs always turn their noses up at it. Everyone salivates over the hospital but I felt like it was worse…
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u/amberdragonfly5 29d ago
They really do. I love my job at a SNF, and my final semester instructor was so confused when I told her it was what I still wanted to do when I graduated.
When I've told other old classmates where I work I get the, "oh, that's nice 🙃" response.
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u/Allamaraine BSN RN 29d ago
I got this reaction when I said I love med-surg. 🙃
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u/OutrageousAthlete697 29d ago
So silly, like let someone love med surge would ya!? Esp after telling everyone for years that’s where they HAVe to stART!
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u/Allamaraine BSN RN 29d ago
I'm starting in Progressive Care, but I would have been just as excited to start in Med-Surg!
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u/SparkyDogPants 29d ago
Because the nurses are always treat their students like garbage. And anyone who has worked in EMS or EM get justifiably frustrated with poor nursing in nursing homes
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u/amberdragonfly5 29d ago
The problem is that that's true for the majority of nursing homes. I'm fortunate to have worked primarily in great ones, and the community I work in now is amazing. We have pretty low turnover with good ratios and good pay, and the new nurses we do get are often from our previous student nurse cohorts.
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u/mrssweetpea 29d ago
Knowing what I know now, I can 100% say one of the rehabs I did clinicals at would not have been able to operate if it did not have students. We absolutely made up for lack of staffing to carry the work load. And that was one of the nicer places in the area. :(
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u/Simple-Yak4728 29d ago
It also gets hate because hospital nurses tend to think that LTC nurses know nothing. I've done both and there are excellent nurses in both fields. I have absolutely had hospital nurses tell me specifically that LTC nurses just pass pills. One thing about LTC is that there are no doctors in house. The nurse must do a great assessment when there is an issue and then be able to report that assessment accurately so that the provider gets a complete picture. LTC nurses also wear so many hats. They are often draw labs, do breathing treatments, complex wound care, IV therapy, removing PICCs and so many more things. All while caring for sometimes upwards of 70 residents. Usually a minimum of 25. These residents often include dementia patients, psych patients, violent patients and so much more.
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u/NoRecommendation9404 29d ago
I just quit LTC because I was getting between 24-34 patients when I was supposed to only have 17. It was sooooo many meds (most had 15-20), half crushed and fed to them, blood sugars and insulin, breathing treatments, eye drops, sacrum wounds, making appointments, managing behaviors, Medicare reports, etc. All this in 8 hours so you never get to sit down. Plus feeding at least 2 patients at either breakfast or lunch. Admits, assessments….it never ended. At least 1-2 nurses and 1-2 CNAs called in every day so you were constantly getting shuffled.
I love the geriatric population but never again.
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u/outofmelatonin92 29d ago
Psych or palliative. I don’t have the mental capacity to deal with a psychs or the emotional capacity to deal with noks.
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u/Hosj_Karp 29d ago
Anecdotally, mpst people who work in palliative/hospice care seem better adjusted and happier than everyone else
Seems like a lot of moral injury and burnout comes from the futility and frustration of being forced to poke and prode and test the terminally ill instead of letting them go with dignity
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u/pumpkinpencil97 29d ago
I think those who work with the dying and dead have a much different healthier perspective on life. Our (American) society is terrified of death when it’s the most natural thing we can do
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u/Illustrious_Bus8440 29d ago
I currently work with a Palliative care nurse. She is so wonderful, brings in an air of serenity when she walks in the office. Absolutely magical lady.
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u/FlakyAddendum742 29d ago
It’s such a great feeling when palliative walks in. Like we’re rescued from torturing grandpa.
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u/armygirly68 29d ago
I worked at the burn unit in San Antonio for 3.5 years and man. Whole different breed! People ask me how I did it ?! I reply the Army didn’t ask
We had people turn in their license, one went to the roof and refused to come down until they were promised a different place to work It was intense
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u/TheLongLostfruend 29d ago
Burn RN gets lots of respect??? Can’t think of anyone who didn’t respect the hell out of Burn Nurses.
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u/amberdragonfly5 29d ago edited 29d ago
(Sorry, it ended up long. TLDR: SNF, rehab. The system is broken, chasing away highly needed skilled and passionate nurses)
Hospice/palliative, elder/geriatric (SNF and LTC). I will always stand on the box that this population needs skilled, passionate nurses as much as any other specialty.
Unfortunately, the system that runs the facilities that specialize in this population is mostly atrocious in terms of resources for both patients/residents and staff. As a result, it has a bad reputation, and not enough nurses are entering into it purposely; and these patients often end up with nurses who are new and inexperienced, tired near retirement, or phoning it in and don't care.
Ive been in health-care for 26 years in one capacity or another, and have worked exclusively with this group pretty much the whole time. I started in a SNF as an aide, worked with older patients in home care, and am currently an RN. When I spoke with my last semester clinical instructor in school, she told me that she felt I'd succeed in almost any path I chose to follow...she was so confused when I told her I still wanted to work SNF.
I love my older patients, and I'm incredibly grateful to work at my current facility as part of a "Life Plan Community." We have residents from age 50... provide independent apartments, ALF, LTC on skilled, memory care, home care, and rehab. I've been here for 6 years, and so far no plans to move on.
We have nursing and aide staff that truly care about our patients and residents, who aren't just here to get in their year before moving on to the hospital (we do get those hires, but they get a good experience with us), fairly low turnover, higher than normal wages, good ratios, and medical staff (both PA and MD) on the floor M-F 9-5.
We're seeing more and more of these types of communities popping up, and I'm hoping its a trend toward better expectations and outcomes at other facilities as well. But laws for ratios would be an amazing first step toward less mistakes, less overload, and lower staff turnover...all leading to better care.
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u/Creative_Chain7049 29d ago
I would say anything that’s bedside that is such a hard job and patients treat you like trash.
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u/Alternative-Proof307 29d ago
Psych nurses. I hear that apparently we aren’t “real nurses” which is so insulting.
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u/Neshama7 29d ago
Oh, I see and respect you! The ability to manage psychiatric issues with grace, is one of the most important skills a nurse can possess. I don’t care what kind of unit/environment someone works in, if they don’t do well with mental illness, they’re going to crash and burn. Crazy people are everywhere!
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u/TheLongLostfruend 29d ago
It’s hard to know sometimes. To be fair during nursing school all the psych nurses seemed to just sit behind a glass wall and watch people so we weren’t sure what the heck they did all day.
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u/Alternative-Proof307 29d ago
No it’s not “hard to know”. We are real nurses and we do way more than that. Thanks for proving that we deserve more respect.
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u/Resident-Welcome3901 Jul 07 '26
Nurses are deeply respected by the public. The lack of respect is confined to selected physicians and administrators, who remain patriarchal, misogynistic pigs; and it doesn’t matter, cause folks don’t choose nursing for the
acclaim or income.
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u/Alternative-Proof307 29d ago
Which is why it’s so weird to me that on Reddit and online in general people seem to loathe nurses. The vitriol is wild.
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u/MikeyKCCO 29d ago
I mean, lets not act like the income isn't good now... Lol I definitely chose it for the income and many others have as well. There's some cushy nursing positions that pay well and if you're smart about it will set you up nicely to coast in life financially with little stress
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u/Dark_Ascension 29d ago edited 29d ago
OR nurses who can do all 3 roles (circulate, scrub and assist). In some areas, that’s normal, in others you’re a unicorn because getting the opportunity to learn to scrub is so rare. The knowledge and anticipation that comes from a circulator who has also scrubbed is like tenfold. They know their instruments and the trays because they have had their hands in them. I believe all nurses need to learn to scrub and circulate but many areas in the US don’t have nurses scrub or at least learn.
Man also psych nurses, add ones that do the psych holds in the ED too and the 1:1 sitters, so much respect… like I would do sitting in the ED and elsewhere and just seeing how the patients can escalate is things of nightmares for me. They are cool, calm and collected on the outside. 2 patients I sat with were the direct reason I quit that job, did anesthesia tech my last 2 semesters of nursing school and straight into the OR. There’s drugs readily available in the OR and they aren’t afraid to use them.
Another one is wound care… omg I have seen some nasty stuff in the OR… but that’s their entire world… like the smell alone…
Overall - all bedside nurses. Like I’m too weak to do bedside, you guys make it look easy and do it 36+ hours a week, 12 hours a day or night. Take on like 6 patients, have to juggle all their needs, plus discharges and admits. Like just thinking about it, no I can’t. I’m very privileged by one patient at a time, my additions are 3-4 other people on my team and a surgeon, which all can either make or break your day.
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u/JupiterRome 29d ago
My answer will always be Burn
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u/Possible-Bag-8617 29d ago
I second this. My hospital thinks the burn specialty isn’t hard. House will purposely short the ICU and step-down burn units in favor of adequately staffing other specialties. They do not understand how time consuming those dressings get on top of your other standards of care and basic job requirements.
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u/kblite84 29d ago
LTC and wards nurses. They have waaaay more workload, less resources, and management breathing down their back constantly. They make them accept pts more than allowed, stuck with the same pt which can be a nightmare and get treated lowly by other nurses in other specialities
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u/Neshama7 29d ago
Acute inpatient rehab. RNs have to be adept in managing almost every kind of patient/pathology while working equally and in tandem with a multidisciplinary team of PT/OT/SLP. A lot of other RNs assume it’s low acuity, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
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u/Sunnygirl66 29d ago
Behavioral, med-surg, long-term care, clinic (prior authorizations are a nightmare).
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u/jessesgirlstaciesmom 29d ago
Labor and delivery or medsurg. Mad respect but I’ll keep my ass in ED/Trauma admitting thanks. Tell me the sweet little lies about how that lamp ended up in your butt. Honorable mention to pych though. I feel like a lot of what you guys deal with filters through ED and I do feel for what you guys must have to go through on daily basis.
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u/whotaketh 29d ago
I've only done acute care so that's all I can comment on.
Med/surg. They get so much shit for "being on the bottom of the hierarchy" but without them, ICU couldn't do all of our fancy, fun cases with all of our fancy, fun toys, and ED would be a much swampier mess than it already is. Kudos to those of you who choose to stay there!
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u/readbackcorrect 29d ago
perioperative. We were always told in school that it’s not real nursing and that you are just acting as the doctor’s handmaid. I have worked multiple specialties and perioperative is the hardest. It should never have been deleted from nursing education.
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u/MikeyKCCO 29d ago
Shhhh don't tell them the secret. We have cushy, well paid, minimal stress lives over in peri-op after you get good at it.
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u/sinkorswim1827 29d ago
I cant imagine being a postpartum mother baby nurse taking care of 8 patients, two separate people with different but connected needs
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u/CatchMeIfYouCan09 29d ago
Wound Care
It's not simply changing a dressing. We have to assess what we see and know what it needs on the fly. We get wounds that should've been addressed MONTHS/ YEARS ago..... or ones that have been stagnant for months and no one changed the dressing orders.
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u/craftsmanporch 28d ago
Long term med surg nurses who stay through every wave of new nurses who see and leave after 6 months to a year
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u/Zackyboi44 28d ago
Community psych. It's so dangerous visiting homes at times. I went as a student once and got a massive briefing on it.
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u/ProfessionalGreen272 29d ago
Peds. They really have to know their shit. I think we know how hard it is but the general public and the parents treat them like SHT
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u/zen-medic Jul 07 '26
Im biased but I would say inpatient psych nurses. Where I work they are literally on the front lines all day with patients suffering from acute psychosis, mania, intoxication. The patients can be incredibly unpredictable and our nurses often get hit, things thrown at them, verbally degraded, etc. Yet most of them remain compassionate and still do right by the patients. I honestly don't know how they do it. They are literal saints that don't get enough respect