What education and experience did you undergo in order to work with children?

I worked registry at a hospital that does outpatient pediatric surgeries has no pediatric unit. When a kid needs to be hospitalized they put the "stable" post op children on a med/surg unit.

For the critically ill they mandate overtime for recovery room RNs until transport to a childrens hospital is accomplished. This is often overnight.

The RNs take PALS and watch a 2 hour peds assessment class.

What do you think would be a safe training program?

The Emergency Nurses Association has a class that is very helpful, plus you get CEU's. Emergency Nurse Pediatric Course, ENPC. It's a 2 day course, I'd recommend it to anyone who has to take care of ped's patients. It's not just about emergencies, it teaches you how to assess kids. :)

Thank you Liligirl:

I will look them up. If a class is offered in the area i will suggest it to the RNs there. I bet the hospital would pay for a two day class.

What about experience? They have a "sister" hospital with a peds unit. At least one RN wants to do a short "clinical internship" there.

http://www.ena.org

sounds like a good plan to visit your sister hospital or you could see how many peds patients your ER sees, might be worth your while to follow the ER nurses around depending on how many they see. :)

Thank you for the link!

The ER does see kids but mostly they are triaged, treated, and sent home or to another hospital.

ER nursing is so varied, it frightens me. Especially sick kids.

You need to know so much!