Types of Nurse Specializations

As a registered nurse, you can choose to specialize in one or more areas, depending on your area of interest. The responsibilities and duties for each nursing role vary according to the area of specialization. For instance, if you are a specialized nurse based in a particular work setting, like ambulatory care, you may not be suited to work in a neonatal ward since it is not within your trained area of specialization.

Care or Work Setting Specializations

• You can specialize by the type of care that you provide. Specializing as a home health care nurse entails attending to patients recovering from accidents, childbirth and surgery. If you specialize as a psychiatric nurse, you treat patients with mood and personality disorders. If you are an occupational health nurse, you treat patients for work-related illnesses and injuries, and you assist workers in identifying workplace hazards so that they can practice health and safety precautions. You can also specialize according to a particular work setting. For instance, you can specialize in ambulatory or critical care.

Body Organ Specializations

• Nurses who specialize in the treatment of organs and tissues work in outpatient care settings or specialty physician settings. Thus, if you specialize according to a particular body organ you can provide services in the critical care units or in the hospital specialty units. For example, if you are a gastroenterology nurse, your work encompasses treating patients with intestinal and digestive disorders, while as a gynecology nurse, you often assist patients with reproductive system disorders. As an orthopedic nurse, you take care of people with skeletal and muscle problems. A urology nurse takes care of people with urinary tract, kidney and male reproductive organ disorders.

Preventive and Acute Care to a Specific Age Group

• Nurses can specialize by giving preventive and acute care in a health care facility to people of different ages. Those who specialize in treating children, adolescents and infants are pediatric nurses; those who focus on elder health care are geriatric nurses; and nurses for the treatment and care of newborns are neonatal nurses.

Disease and Condition Specializations

• Some nursing specializations require you to concentrate on the treatment and management of a specific ailment, condition or disease. This means that if you are a diabetic management nurse, your work is to assist diabetic patients in managing their condition. Work as a diabetic management nurse involves educating patients on proper diet and injecting insulin. If you are a HIV/AIDS nurse you learn to diagnose and take care of people living with HIV and AIDS.