The world of nursing is forever evolving and growing, it’s now the nation’s largest healthcare profession. There are almost 4.7 million registered nurses across the country. It’s a rewarding career path, with a range of specializations to explore depending on your interests.
If you’re a recent nursing graduate deciding on a career path, or just interested in nursing education—you’re in the right place. Our guide will cover all the nursing specializations available for postgraduate studies, from the online post-master’s FNP program for Family Nurse Practitioners to Psychiatric/Mental Health Nursing and everything in between.
Continuing your nursing studies and pursuing a specialty is more than just a career move. It’s a great opportunity to challenge yourself, meet new people, network, and work in a field you’re passionate about.
What is a Nursing Specialty?
Nursing is a unique occupation in the healthcare industry, not only because it’s the heart of the field—but also because there are so many roles a nurse can take on. Everyone is familiar with registered nurses (RN), but there are career paths beyond that.
In nursing, it’s possible to further your career path through additional training and specialized education. This is known as nursing ‘specialties’. It opens the door to focusing on specific areas, like mental health, geriatric nursing, pediatrics, or even niches like forensic nursing, travel nursing, and informatics nursing.
Popular Nursing Specialties
There are countless nursing specialties, we’d need another guide to cover them all. The following are a few popular nursing specialties, what makes them a top pick, information about the role, and their job outlook.
Family Nurse Practitioner
A family nurse practitioner (FNP) is an advanced practice registered nurse (APRN), specializing in providing preventative and primary care to patients. FNPs can work with patients of all ages and have become an invaluable part of the healthcare force.
Family nurse practitioners can also perform many of the same tasks as primary care physicians. This also includes diagnosing and treating medical conditions, as well as prescribing medication.
This has resulted in the demand for FNPs around the country being high, and it’s expected to stay strong, with a projected field growth of 45% in the next 10 years. They are also one of the highest-paying nursing specialties but require one of the longest education times.
Pediatric Nursing
Pediatric nursing is a great specialty to consider if you’re passionate about the well-being of children. They focus on the care of children, from infancy to early childhood—taking on the role of an educator and caretaker.
Pediatric nurse practitioners are always in demand, especially in areas with a shortage of primary care physicians. Depending on the state, they can work without physician supervision, allowing them to work in a variety of healthcare environments.
A pediatric nurse practitioner is classified as an ‘advanced practice’ registered nurse. Which means that it requires a Master’s Degree on top of an undergraduate degree.
Psychiatric/Mental Health Nursing
With the rise of mental health awareness, psychiatric nursing is becoming a popular specialization. They can help with assessing and caring for the mental health of individuals, families, and groups.
There are also further career pathways for psychiatric/mental health nurses, too. Depending on how far you take your education, they can also treat patients, prescribe medication, and counsel those with mental health issues.
Forensic Nursing
While this role isn’t quite as it’s pictured in popular shows like CSI and SVU, forensic nursing is still exciting and engaging. Forensic nurses play an essential role in bridging the gap between the law and medicine.
If you’re interested in the criminal justice system and nursing, forensic nursing merges the two worlds. Along with providing physical and emotional care to victims, this nursing specialty may collect evidence and even perform evaluations on alleged perpetrators.
Forensic nurses also have a varied work environment due to the nature of their role. If you’re looking to get out of hospitals, forensics opens the door to work in criminal justice institutions, like a coroner’s office.
Travel Nursing
If you’ve got an appetite for travel that you can’t satiate, then travel nursing is a great opportunity. This specialty will have you working across the country as a temporary nurse, sometimes filling in shortages for days or weeks at a time.
Travel nursing also opens the door to temporary work overseas. For example, countries that may be facing a disaster, or have a high need for nurses, like Australia, or the Middle East.
Choosing Your Path
Your choice of specialty can shape your entire nursing career. It’ll grant you new skills and abilities, open doors to new work environments, and change your job outlook and salary. Before deciding on a nursing specialty, we recommend considering a few factors.
Personal Interest
Ever heard Mark Twain’s famous quote, ‘Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life’? This should be one of the top factors when it comes to considering a nursing specialty.
For instance, if you’re passionate about mental health, you could consider becoming a psychiatric or mental health nurse. If you enjoy the field your specialty is in, it’s easier to stay engaged with the job and be excited about the challenges that come with it.
Skill Set and Strengths
It’s also important to consider your own skill set and strengths. If you excel at empathy and communication, it’s worth considering a nursing pathway that deals with patients daily and is a front-facing role.
If you’re great at working under pressure and stress, you could consider working towards becoming an emergency care nurse. Understanding your strengths is key to figuring out the future of your nursing pathway.
Lifestyle Considerations
We wish we could say that all nursing specialties are the same, but some are more demanding than others. So, when considering future nursing studies, it’s essential to factor in your lifestyle choices and personal commitments.
Some nursing specialties require shift work or result in higher levels of stress than other positions. Reflect on your lifestyle, how your nursing career fits into it, and where you see yourself in the future. For example, if you’re planning a family—a high-stress environment and long hours wouldn’t be ideal.
Excelling in Your Career
If you are looking to grow your nursing career, then considering a specialty is the first step to excelling. It may seem daunting to re-open your textbooks and start studying, but it’s great for new employment opportunities, growing your skills, and potentially increasing your salary.
There has also never been a better time to consider a specialty, as the United States—and the world—is currently facing a shortage of primary care and specialty care physicians. So, specialty nurses are in high demand to fill the gaps and provide the required care.
If you decide specialty nursing is for you, you won’t have to be concerned about employment opportunities, either. Registered nurses alone are expected to grow faster than the average over the next decade, at 6%. Specialty nursing positions are at similar rates with their job outlook and growth.
