[3KittiesRN]

Hello everyone! I am a nursing student with one more semester to go. YAY! I will be done in May. I would love love love to go into Pediatric nursing after graduation. I was wondering if it is possible to be hired into pediatrics as a new grad?? I am crossing my fingers that I get to do my preceptorship at the Children's Hospital. Would this give me an edge when looking for a job in Peds?? How often do you see new grads hired into peds? I appreciate your input, THANKS!!

Erika Ann

[Jolie]

A new grad can be hired into any specialty. Strictly by the numbers, this may be a little more difficult to accomplish in peds, though.

Most hospitals have dozens to hundreds of beds devoted to the care of adult patients, and only a few for pediatric patients. Why? Because, for the most part, kids are healthy and don't often require hospitalization.

So, if your heart is set on peds, please consider applying to teaching hospitals with large pediatric services, children's hospitals, or Level III NICU's. These are the facilities where the demand for pediatric nurses, and therefore the opportunities for new grads, are the greatest.

Good luck!

[llg]

I agree with Jole. Hospitals with large pediatric servies and children's hosptials have the greatest needs for peds nurses -- and most hire new grads all the time. However, a small community hospital that only has a couple of pediatric beds probable does not hire new grads for their peds population very often.

You're right about the preceptorship. It will probably be a big help in your efforts to get a new grad peds job. The children's hospital I work for (East Coast) is always on the lookout for new grads who have some special learning experiences in peds -- such as preceptorships, nursing assistant or extern jobs in peds, etc. We love hiring those folks. They tend to do very well.

[dadslilgyrl22]

Originally Posted by ErikaAnn

Hello everyone! I am a nursing student with one more semester to go. YAY! I will be done in May. I would love love love to go into Pediatric nursing after graduation. I was wondering if it is possible to be hired into pediatrics as a new grad?? I am crossing my fingers that I get to do my preceptorship at the Children's Hospital. Would this give me an edge when looking for a job in Peds?? How often do you see new grads hired into peds? I appreciate your input, THANKS!!

Erika Ann

I SAY GO FOR IT!! I DID AND GOT HIRED STRAIGHT ONTO PEDS. I TOLD MYSELF IT COULDNT HURT TO TRY AND THEY ADMIRED MY PASSION FOR PEDS. JUST BE YOURSELF AND THE UNIT MY TAKE A CHANCE ON YOU ONCE THEY SEE YOUR DETERMINATION....

[3KittiesRN]

Thanks everyone for you input! After graduation I am going to apply at the Children's Hospitals in my area. I hope and pray that I get to do my preceptorship in peds! My goal is to get into the New Grad Residency program in my area, that would be a dream come true! Well wish me luck on my last semester! I will keep you posted!!

Erika Ann

[MikeyJ]

Thankfully I was able to land a nurse apprentice position in the pediatrics department at a local teaching hospital (despite it being teaching, we only have 32 bed pediatric department and 10 bed PICU). I will be hired on as an RN in their PICU department after I graduate.

I absolutely DESPISE working in adult medicine. Thank god this is the last semester of adults.. next semester is my final preceptorship and will be requesting the PICU.

[Italianprincess]

I got hired into pedi right out of school. I felt like I was really lucky to have gotten it right out of school. I live in a small town in Texas (pop. 36,000) and our pedi unit is actually a Women's and Children's unit with 24 beds. We have alot of post-GYN surgery patients but mostly it's pedi. I am not sure where you are from but I am sure that you won't have a problem where ever you go. Surprisingly not alot of people want to get into peds because they say that pedi scares the crap out of them. I love it! I also work in Postpartum and I am going to cross train in L&D when I finish my RN. Good luck to you!

[MikeyJ]

Originally Posted by Italianprincess

I got hired into pedi right out of school. I felt like I was really lucky to have gotten it right out of school. I live in a small town in Texas (pop. 36,000) and our pedi unit is actually a Women's and Children's unit with 24 beds. We have alot of post-GYN surgery patients but mostly it's pedi. I am not sure where you are from but I am sure that you won't have a problem where ever you go. Surprisingly not alot of people want to get into peds because they say that pedi scares the crap out of them. I love it! I also work in Postpartum and I am going to cross train in L&D when I finish my RN. Good luck to you!

My exact experience! At the beginning of nursing school, there are many students who say "I want to work in ped's!" but then they do the rotation and it scares them and/or saddens them to work with sick children. And toward the end of nursing school, there are only a few left that still want to do pediatrics.

And then there are those like me who never had intentions to work in pediatrics (never thought it would really interest me) but I have fallen in love with and suprisingly do not like working with adults.

[ShiphrahPuah]

ItalianPrincess, your job sounds a lot like one I just interviewed for. I will be graduating in May, and I really wanted to work in peds or in postpartum and eventually L&D. The unit I interviewed with had peds/women's health on one side of the floor, and L&D/postpartum/special care nursery on the other side. I loved the fact that the nurses in that unit do not float to the rest of the hospital but are cross-trained within that unit. The hospitals where I have done my clinicals have not been set up like this, but I really like this idea. I really don't like adult med-surg (blecch!) but I feel like women's health is fine with me. In your unit, you get primarily gyne surgery patients in the women's health section? How many of the patients are just med-surg overflow as opposed to specifically women's health issues? I am feeling very positive about this unit and have been telling myself that some women med-surg patients would be great experience (and I do have an interest in women's health issues, especially from a psychosocial aspect due to some life experiences I have had). The idea of being able to cross train to peds, PP, SOME adult med-surg, and eventually L&D seems great! BUT...another part of my brain is telling me "you do not like adult med-surg ... what if this turns out to be like some of the floors you have been on in clinical? What if they make you do all the adult med-surg patients because you are new? Are you nuts to consider this?" Help! Tell me what you like about your unit. Thanks!

[Italianprincess]

Out unit is like that with the PP, Nursery, and L&D on one side and Women's and Children's on the other. The only difference is that while we do get cross trained for all of the areas we are required to float to other departments if there is a need. I am not real crazy about it but we are so short-handed that I don't think I will be doing much floating out of my unit. The women on my unit are mostly post-op GYN surgeries, we get a couple of early pregnancies that are under 20 weeks, some female med-surg, and the peds of course. We do not take anything that is too infectious because we share floor with the nursery and postpartum. If the babies get too bad we will ship them to Texas Childrens or Shumpert in Louisiana. I had a 23 yo sickle cell patient, a 27 yo pancreatitis, 24 yo with a possible removal that was 14 weeks pregnant, and 3 peds Monday. It is mostly women's health issues but we see some other stuff too. We don't take any boys over 12. I like that fact that it is mostly hysterectomies and sick children versus adult med surg. Adult med surg is like a nursing home in alot of places and that is not for me. I don't have to worry too much about the patients having some kind of infectious disease and being in isolation because we don't take those. I am very interested in women's health myself and would also like to teach childbirth classes and breastfeeding classes when I move over into Postpartum more regularly. It would be a dream come true for me to become a Certified Nurse Midwife but I am taking baby steps right now. If I get there, then I get there. I did get kind of screwed when I started because I got to be the med nurse for the whole floor because the other nurse (we only had one at the time) did not have the time to properly train me because she was too busy. I felt like a legal drug dealer passing Demerol and Phenergan every hour. I had 3 patients on it and they all took it at different times. They would set the alarm on their cell phones. It drove me nuts!!!!