Because of the changes in health care over the past decade and the continuing nursing shortage, nursing is one of the hottest career fields in the nation.

The profession offers a wide range of choices for employment settings - from hospitals to insurance companies, from nursing homes to public health. Job candidates can just about pick any arena and they'll find a need for nurses.

Experts say that the highest demand is in three areas: directors of surgical services, nursing faculty and geriatrics.

"Director of surgical services is certainly one of the most in-demand in the industry today," said Robin Singleton, of Tyler & Co., a retained health care executive search firm headquartered in Atlanta. "The ideal candidate will have at least five years of specific experience in the operating room, five years of leadership experience and strong physicianrelations skills."

Having both RN and BSN degrees is necessary.

Singleton said that most of the searches her company conducts for the position result in the new director of surgical services being brought in from another institution rather than promoted from within. "The director of surgical services walks a fine line between the nurses and the physicians," she said. "It makes it really hard for the nurse to move from the practice side to administration when promoted from within.

Frequently, a director of surgical services is responsible for managing a large surgical suite, sometimes with as many as 20 or 30 operating rooms.

"It can be one of the most thankless jobs in a hospital, and it is one of the most demanding," Singleton said.

Nursing faculty is another area that needs experienced nurses who are willing to teach at the college level.

"With the nursing shortage, we have many more students applying than we have faculty to teach them," said Dee Baldwin, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, of Georgia State University. "With this in mind, nursing professors will always be in demand, and it's a totally different experience than practicing in the day-to-day clinical setting.

"It's a wonderful chance to mentor students and to see the profession continue its reputation for excellence in patient care."

With an increasingly older population, the field of geriatrics also has a need for experienced nurses, Baldwin said. With people living longer, the demand for caregivers in this area is expected to steadily increase.

"We're all graying and we're retiring," she said. "Not only are those of us as faculty retiring, we'll need nurses to take care of us when we get older."