Nursing is considered a fulfilling, well-paying, and stable profession. Nurses play a crucial role in the healthcare industry, and nursing is an in-demand profession. The nursing profession is evolving rapidly, and specific specializations are required to work in diverse healthcare settings. A specialized degree in nursing can help you advance your career and shape the future of the healthcare industry.
Based on your specialization, you can work in a practical, educational, or leadership role in nursing. A practical specialization equips you with the necessary skills to work in clinical and hospital settings to directly serve and save patients. An education-focused specialization empowers you to educate and train the next generation of nurses. A leadership-focused specialization provides you with an opportunity to introduce good policies and better care practices to transform the future of the healthcare industry.
A bachelor’s degree in nursing is the minimum requirement for getting a job. However, getting a master’s degree in a specific nursing specialization can increase your marketability and chances of getting better job opportunities. Nowadays, on-campus and online master’s study options are available. It is better for nurses who are already working a job to pursue online MSN programs as they are more convenient. Common nursing specializations include cardiac nurse, clinical nurse specialist, and family nurse practitioner. Nurses don’t just work in hospitals or emergency rooms; they also work in various other unique job settings.
In this article, we are going to discuss some lesser-known nursing specializations.
- Forensic Nursing
Forensic nursing is a recently introduced specialization in nursing. Nurses pursuing this specialization are educated and trained to provide care to victims of a crime or violence. Moreover, they also collect physical evidence from dead or living victims of a crime to help with criminal investigations. They closely work with law enforcement agencies and can be called to court to testify as expert witnesses.
Forensic nurses also work as mental health nurses at correctional facilities and police departments to understand and help criminals. They can also be employed to work in organizations dealing with child abuse, domestic violence, human trafficking, and elderly abuse.
- Holistic Nursing
Nurses pursuing holistic nursing are trained to look after their patients’ mental and emotional health, along with their physical health. Holistic nursing was established as a specialty in 2007 by the American Nurses Association (ANA).
The goal of a holistic nurse is to heal the patient as a whole. Holistic nurses also encourage their patients to adopt healthier lifestyles to lead better lives after recovery. They use alternative treatments like acupuncture, massage, hypnosis, aromatherapy, and more to treat their patients.
Overall, holistic nursing decreases the chances of a patient getting injured or sick and increases the chances of a positive patient outcome. Western medicine and holistic nursing practices combined can help a patient make a full and smooth recovery.
- Infection Control Nursing
Infection control nursing specialization empowers registered nurses to implement suitable methods and techniques and stop or reduce the spread of infectious entities. Infection control nurses work with scientists, government officials, and public health experts to protect the public from dangerous viruses and bacteria. An infection control nurse has various responsibilities like;
- They carefully analyze infection-related data.
- They use effective methods to treat people with infectious diseases.
- They develop detailed plans to deal with potential outbreaks.
- They design educational campaigns to share their findings with other healthcare professionals and the public.
- They also isolate an infected person upon identifying infection to stop further spreading of the infectious entity.
- Missionary Nursing
Several communities around the world suffer from inadequate medical care. Missionary nursing equips nurses with valuable skills to work in underprivileged communities around the world and provide the highest quality of care to those people irrespective of their color, ethnicity, or religious background.
A missionary nurse specifically works with a religious, humanitarian, or non-profit organization to provide physical treatment and spiritual support to those who need them. The main goal of missionary nurses is to educate people about leading a healthy lifestyle, practicing hygiene, and preventing diseases instead of treating them.
Another duty of missionary nurses is to raise funds to supply underprivileged populations with necessary resources like clean water, life-saving medicines, and vaccines.
- Neuroscience Nursing
Neuroscience nurses care for people with neurological disorders. Neuroscience nurses assist doctors and surgeons in a variety of tasks like neurosurgery. Moreover, they provide specialized care to people struggling with long-term neurological conditions like epilepsy and life-limiting neurological conditions like Huntington’s disease.
Neuroscience nurses work at hospitals, neurological injury units, rehabilitation facilities, and other organizations. They mainly assess, diagnose, and treat neurological conditions. Moreover, they also assist during MRI and CT scans. Further, they enable their patients to live enriching lives even with their disabilities.
The Bottom Line
Nursing is a rewarding career. A bachelor’s degree is the minimum requirement for all nursing jobs. A further master’s degree specializing in a specific nursing field increases your career prospects drastically. Family nurse practitioners, clinical nurses, and cardiac nurses are common specializations in nursing. However, there are some lesser-known specializations that very few nurses pursue. These lesser-known specializations include neuroscience nursing, missionary nursing, holistic nursing, forensic nursing, and infection control nursing.
These specializations equip nurses with specific knowledge and skills necessary to work in the respective nursing specialization.
