Nursing Schools: Five Great Nursing Specialities

Staff nurses work in all the places you normally think of when you think of nurses like hospitals, clinics, and doctor's offices. As a staff nurse, you generally work alongside physicians in all specializations. You record medical conditions, treat patient symptoms, perform tests and analyze their results. You also administer treatments and medications. The average salary for a hospital staff nurse is about $53,500 per year.

Where Do I Start? A licensed practical nurse (LPN) program lasts about a year, and should give you access to good job prospects. Demands for geriatric care are projected to drive up LPN job creation in the home healthcare services sector.

When you work as a home health care nurse in private homes, you prepare meals, offer basic bedside care, and emotional comfort. You track vital signs such as blood pressure, respiration, and pulse. You can help family members learn basic nursing tasks.

The average income for a home health nurse is about $35,000 for this nursing position.

Where Do You Start? You need to become a licensed practical nurse (LPN). You can attend a community college or vocational schools for about a year.

The need for geriatric care is projected to drive up the demand for LPNs and should offer you good job prospects.

Where Do I Start? A licensed practical nurse (LPN) program lasts about a year, and should give you access to good job prospects. Demands for geriatric care are projected to drive up LPN job creation in the home healthcare services sector.

Help solve crimes by becoming a forensic nurse. If you hold your your RN certification you can begin a career in forensic nursing. Forensic nurses assist in criminal investigations of accidental death, sexual assault, homicide, and other criminal cases. Forensic nurses testify about their findings in court.

Where Do I Start? Along with an RN certification and Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN), a degree program or course work in criminal justice or law enforcement can give you an added edge for forensic nurse job openings. Specialized forensic nursing certifications are available online.

If you have an interest in law and if you are a registered nurse you can enter the lucrative field of legal nurse consulting. Legal nurse consultants are needed in law firms, government offices, hospital risk management departments, and other health care or legal-related business.

Where Do You Start? Probably the quickest path into this profession is if you have an RN Certification, the you can earn a legal nurse consulting certificate. Earning a criminal justice degree combined with a degree in nursing will open the doors to employment in the nurse consulting field. If you haven't already gotten a bachelor's in nursing, there are accelerated RN-to-BSN program.

Where Do I Start? If you haven't already gotten a bachelor's in nursing, now is a good time to do it with an accelerated RN-to-BSN program. Taking course work or double majoring in criminal justice can balance out your legal knowledge with your nursing know-how. The best of all worlds is a legal nurse consulting certificate program.

School nursing in the U.S. dates back to 1902, although duties have greatly expanded since then. Today's school nurses provide health assessment, intervention, and follow-up with children. You help maintain school compliance with healthcare policies and assure the health and safety of staff and students. You could also refer students for additional medical help when hearing, vision, body mass index, and other issues become inhibitors to successful learning.

Where Do I Start? You should already have your RN, and ideally, you have a bachelor's degree. A master's degree in nursing or a health care MBA can give you career mobility to get into policy-level decisions. Many school nurses not only have a Nurse Practitioner (NP) certification, but an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN) certification.