Healthcare subspecialties where you can work as a registered nurse – Part 4

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A nursing career is one of the most in-demand and rewarding jobs today. If you’re considering a career as a registered nurse and you don’t know yet what is best for you after finishing studies, here is a series of amazing healthcare fields where you can use your medical knowledge, experience and compassion for a better future.

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Surgical nurses (perioperative nursing).

As you may know, surgery is a complex and challenging specialty in the medical field that requires top abilities to perform surgical procedures, a strong focus, patience and care for patients. When it comes to nursing, there are two types of subfields you can choose as a registered nurse:

Operating Room Nurse

The main responsibilities of an operating room nurse are related to the sterile room settings and preparing the room for the patient, and include:

• Setting up the operating room for the patient.
• Welcoming and identifying the patient in the operating room unit according to existing medical procedures.
• Preparing the patient for the operation, both physically and mentally.
• Setting the patient on the operating table (depending on the type of surgery and the surgeon’s indications)
• Putting on the sterile equipment for the surgery.
• Assisting the surgeon during the surgery.
• Providing all necessary medical instruments to the surgeon, during surgery

Circulating Nurse

Registered nurse works in the operating room environment as well and unlike operating room nurses, a circulating nurse doesn’t scrub in or performs tasks that cannot be done by scrubbed staff. The main responsibilities are:

–        being in charge of preparing the operating room and the medical instruments table

–        helping the surgeon dress with sterile equipment

–        providing the necessary materials during the surgery

–        following the instruments preparation rules for sterilization

–        following the required steps for cleaning the used instruments

–        following the norms for asepsis and antisepsis

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Gynecology Nurse (OBGYN nurse)

This is another healthcare nursing career path that will offer you plenty of job opportunities and high salary. In this field, you need to care for women from puberty to menopause, during pregnancy, labor, childbirth, as well as in other reproductive health issues. Your main duties are:

–        managing patient records

–        completing documents and registers

–        completing medical information in the database

–        applying medical treatments under the doctor’s guidance

–        performing sample procedures at the doctor’s indications, labeling the containers correctly and checking the medical recommendations  

–        assisting the doctor during the consultation visits

–        preparing medical clinical observation documents (the consultation records), the consultation register, the prescriber or other special forms and medical letters for the doctor to complete

–        monthly reporting of the consultations in the statistical files

–        identifying the sterilization procedures according to the object of sterilization, following the sanitary norms and characteristics for each instrument needed to be sterilized

–        preparing and sterilizing the soft materials (pads, compresses)

–        preparing materials and instruments to be sterilized

–        preparing the equipment required during the medical procedures

–        storing the consumables and the instruments according to each of the products storing conditions.

Dialysis Nurse

This type of subspecialty nursing career is a truly sought one and it belongs to the nephrology specialty. Patients undergoing dialysis need special care from the start, so you need to be properly prepared for this job. These are some of the main duties for a dialysis nurse:

–        taking the patient to the dialysis department

–        preparing the patient both physically and mentally for starting dialysis procedure

–        taking care of hematological sample collecting

–        preparing the dialysis machine and setting the serum system

–        constantly patient monitoring

–        performing medical and perfusion treatment for patients according to the doctor’s suggestions

–        Weighing the patient before and after starting dialysis

–        Handling the permanent dialysis catheter and the fistula after performing the dialysis

–        Constantly monitoring patient’s blood pressure and heart rate during dialysis

–        Taking care of the dialysis completion, ensuring the sterilization and cleaning of dialysis equipment after the procedure is completed.

This nursing career guide is part of the series on medical subspecialties a registered nurse can pursue for greater job opportunities and higher pay.

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This article is the first of a series about the medical subdomains in which a nurse can work. We will continue the series with several examples of sub-domains, with an emphasis on responsibilities.

Read the next parts:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

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