Nurses are in high demand right now, and this will continue into the next decade. Being that nursing is an ever evolving field due to the constant advancements in medicine, technology, and healthcare, the types of specialties will change with those trends.

The nursing field has grown so much in the last 20 years that the Bureau of Labor Statistics has gone out of its way to begin categorizing which of the various fields of nursing are growing quickly.

On the whole, the healthcare field’s demand for Resident Nurses (RN’s) is expected to grow 6% over the next 10 years, while more specialized fields like Midwives, anesthetists, and nurse practitioners is expected to grow by 40% from 2021 to 2031! These numbers are much faster than the average for other occupations. Around 30,200 openings per year are expected for each of the previously named. Much of this demand will be due to the need for the replacement of workers who will soon be retiring.

Regardless of what role in the healthcare industry may interest you, there will be a need in the decades moving forward. The specialized training required to adequately serve the needs in various roles tends to set some positions apart from others. As such, there is an emerging grouping of the most rapidly growing nursing specializations.

Here is a list, though not comprehensive, for 2023.

Travel Nursing

This quickly growing field is one of the most sought after, and for two primary reasons: Travel and incredible pay. The need for nurses across the country right now is very high, so the demand is great. In order to attract the right people, hospitals and healthcare clinics are sometimes doing outrageous things to offer incentives.

Ironically, there is no difference in the role other than the transience and temporary nature of the position. Travel nurses are hired to simply fill in some of open, full-time positions that cannot otherwise be filled, usually for short periods of time, typically no longer than 13 weeks.

Persons interested in this role should be adaptable, personable, and willing to morph to fit into new communities and their various needs quickly. If you have those abilities and the freedom to move around the country, this may be just the specialty for you.

Pediatrics

The role of the pediatric nurse may not always be the most commonly thought of when mention of a nurse practitioner arises, but great responsibility lies here. Pediatrics is the area of nursing that specializes in offering care for children. Just as when being around kids in any respect, there is a novelty and playfulness that can accompany the role which helps to make a child patient feel more at home.

This fast-paced and rewarding career carries all the regular responsibilities, from testing, charting, care and cleaning, all wrapped up into a smaller person. Pediatric nurses who have an affinity and level of previous exposure to working with kids will bring valuable perspective into this specialization.

The ability to transfer the knowledge of childcare or psychological development into the day-to-day responsibilities that make up the care of children will make them a valuable member of any healthcare company. Add this to the rewards that come from making a child smile and the prospect of working in pediatrics may be the specialty that fits.

Geriatrics

This specialization focuses on working with caseworkers, nursing homes, social workers, and other similar care companies to assist the elderly. It is no surprise that this role is high in demand right now with the baby boomer generation retiring and aging into that demographic.

Nurse practitioners tend to be a more preferred choice for this role because of the need for constant coordination, but LPN’s and RN’s are in high demand too; they only need to earn the additional certifications.

Midwives

A nurse midwife specializes in childbirth care and support but can also include the education and care of women pre and post-partum. While they maintain all the general training accompanying a nurse, their specialties are focused on all things necessary to maintain healthy pregnancy and births. These nurses often work in accompaniment with doctors and other physicians or healthcare, medical professionals to accomplish that task.

Informatics

Nurse Informatics is a specialty that combines nursing sciences with multiple bases of information and various analytical sciences all with the goal of identifying, defining, managing, and communicating data. This role takes the clinical and technical languages involved in the healthcare industry and seeks to support clients, patients, customers, throughout the interprofessional healthcare settings. They help to inform administrators and companies in the many aspects of decision making to aid in any respect to client care.

By focusing on the information and data available in the systems, Nurse Informatics goal is communicating in a way that seeks to boost performance for organizations by analyzing and advising. Increased efficiencies, cutting costs, and improving patient care are some of the top goals. They do this by facilitating the integration of data sets from various departments and then distribute that to their colleagues in the workplace.

Again, while this list is not comprehensive, it does serve as an introduction to which roles and trends in the healthcare industry are becoming popular. Further research will reveal what other roles are available.

With a Bachelor’s in Health Science along with an MBA, Sarah Daren has a wealth of knowledge within both the health and business sectors. Her expertise in scaling and identifying ways tech can improve the lives of others has led Sarah to be a consultant for a number of startup businesses, most prominently in the wellness industry, wearable technology and health education. She implements her health knowledge into every aspect of her life with a focus on making America a healthier and safer place for future generations to come.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.