I plan on going to college next year for nursing but I'm not sure what kind of nursing and I'm worried I wont get enough exposure to decide. What tips do you have so I can make an informed decision when I graduate?

Congrats on your decision to go to nursing school Madison. And good for you for thinking ahead.

Nursing is a career with a broad spectrum of possibilities and options. Nursing school teaches you and prepares you for the basics. Most programs have courses and lectures on as much as possible and clinical rotations on what will give you the best overall experience. You may be surprised by how much exposure you might get. Each school is different. I went to a 4 year Bachelor program and spent time in each of the basic areas, but in more than one way. I spent time in a nursing home, the ER, and trauma/surgical ICU. I went to the inpatient psychiatry unit and did psychiatry nurse home visits. I spent time with school nurses. I went to the Pediatric ICU and went to a local community health center for childhood education. On my maternity rotation, I spent time in labor & delivery, the mother/baby postpartum area, newborn nursery, and the Neonatal ICU. I loved these last areas and chose to do my externship for school in labor & delivery and it solidified my love for the maternity field.

All of these areas barely covered what was available, but showed me a lot of options and guided me to where I wanted to be. Nursing is flexible. You can always try an area that you think you will like and change if you do not. 

Good luck in school!

Nursing is such a rewarding career and the various jobs and duties nurses perform covers a wide and diverse range of specialties and positions.

While in nursing school, you will get exposed to the main types of nursing areas such as pediatrics, labor and delivery, postpartum, newborn nursery, Medical/Surgical (Med/Surg), OR, ICU, ER, psychiatry, and Neonatal ICU.

I can tell you that this barely scratches the surface of the various areas that nurses work in. Other areas that most schools do not have clinical rotations for include: home health, hospice/palliative care, wound care, diabetes education, lactation consulting, case management, utilization review, risk management, clinical documentation, nursing homes, recovery room, pre-op, dialysis, or doctor's offices.

After graduating nursing school and passing the NCLEX, most hospitals and organizations have an internship to help prepare graduate nurses for their new roles in their new jobs. This means that your job outlook will be limited by what internships are available. The good news is, it is fairly easy to change your career path within nursing once you have some experience.

References:

https://www.discovernursing.com/explore-specialties#no-filters

I agree with Laura and Aaron on this one. Nursing school is a great experience with exposure to many different clinical specialties. As you progress through your training you will have the opportunity to learn, practice skills, and decide what you enjoy.

Many people start nursing school thinking they would specialize in one area only to change their mind one or even several times. It is completely normal. One of the best parts about nursing is our ability to change paths using the broad foundation of knowledge we have as a nurse. Even once you pass boards and gain experience you may need to try a specialty or two in order to find something you are passionate about.

I have been a nurse for 10 years specializing in critical care and emergency nursing, but it took me some experiences in interventional radiology, oncology, and long term care to decide that this was what was right for me. I couldn't be happier and I'm confident you will be able to find your specialty too.

https://minoritynurse.com/steps-choosing-nursing-specialization/

Hi Madison! I was in your same exact situation when I began nursing school about 20 years ago. I knew I wanted to be a nurse, but I had no idea what type of nurse. After 20 years of working as a nurse, my experience has been primarily critical care and cardiology (with a deep focus in cardiology). I would have NEVER thought that would be my specialty when I was in nursing school. In fact, I loved my maternity clinicals and thought I was going to be a maternity nurse. The ICU clinical was kind of scary, and I thought I did not want to go into the ICU.

When I got my first job as a nurse on a med/surg unit, I realized I wanted to learn in depth about how to treat patients and was amazed at the ICU nurses who would come to my unit to take patients to the ICU. I then worked on a critical care step down unit and gained even more exposure and gained more confidence that I could work in the ICU. From there, I did end up in an amazing general medical ICU where I took care of a wide variety of patients and became fascinated with cardiology. Since my first ICU experience, the majority of my nursing jobs have been in critical care or in cardiology.

Long story short - please do not feel pressured to pick a field of nursing to specialize in while in nursing school. Enjoy learning what you can in school, and once you begin working as a nurse, you will realize what you are interested in. Once you figure this out, you can then try getting nursing jobs in fields that you find interesting. Hopefully this helps. Good luck!