Become a Nurse >> Browse Articles >> Step 7 – Decide on a Specialty

Up and coming Nurse Niches

A nurse is a nurse is a nurse, right? Wrong. Nursing jobs are extraordinarily varied and diverse. Here’s a snapshot of four specialised nursing niches that even healthcare professionals may know little about.

Prison Nursing

Nurses who work behind bars with the nation’s prison inmates and young offenders deal with a range of medical problems, from toothaches to trauma. Many prison nurses enjoy taking care of people who need a lot of services and education.

Because prison nurses work autonomously – assessing new inmates, helping manage the chronic diseases and mental illnesses of long-term prisoners and responding to acute illnesses and injuries – they must be confident, mature and well-rounded. In addition, they must be ability to assess the patient without judgement about their past.

Nursing in prisons and jails is safe because the environments are carefully controlled with guards nearby at all times.

Forensic Nursing

Nurses have always worked with victims and perpetrators of violent crime, but it wasn’t until the early ‘90s that “forensic nursing” became a common description for this work. The United Kingdom Association for Forensic Nurses (UKAFN) was formed on 22nd March 2007 to provide national guidelines to assist Forensic Nurses with the collection of forensic evidence in response to allegations of sexual assault. This can be from both the complainant and the detained suspect.

Of course, while television shows such as Silent Witness and CSI are full of excitement, the day to day work is more concerned with being patient, thorough and methodical in your assessments so your evidence can withstand the scrutiny of court.

Holistic Nursing

Although scepticism regarding alternative therapies exists, holistic nursing is a growing specialty, thanks to healthcare consumers’ acceptance of the philosophy that treating the whole person is better than treating just a disease or symptom. Holistic nurses include anyone who works with the mind/body/spirit connection and encourages their patients to participate in their own healing.

In addition to embracing the holistic philosophy, many nurses become proficient or earn certification or licenses in such healing modalities as therapeutic massage, aromatherapy, imagery, herbology or Reiki that complement Western medicine. They can either practice their healing outside of their full time nursing job, or as a full time job in its own right.

Parish Nursing

A Parish Nurse helps people to understand how faith and health fit together. They promote healthy living by educating and counselling parishioners on exercise and nutrition, advocating for community health, helping sick parishioners navigate the medical system, and developing support groups for bereavement, parenting, divorce and other issues. Parish Nursing can be voluntary, part-time or full-time. Nurses interested in this specialty should work with their own churches to get started. It is mainly a preventative role so you are trying to help people stay healthy rather than taking care of the casualties of life.