[KayPrincess]

I want to be a pediatric nurse soooo bad..its one of the things I've always wanted to do because i love children, i have 2 of my own. Problem is, is that I dont think I can handle deaths and things like that, is there any way I can overcome that? Is it that bad?

[ljgrn]

Deaths and things like that, as you put it, happen in all areas of nursing not just peds. If you want to work in an office setting you would be less likely to come in direct contact to the situations you don't think you can handle.

[tjb6929]

i have worked on a pediatric unit in a hospital for 4 years now. i enjoy it very much, however it is more difficult in many ways, in my opinion, than caring for adults- which i also do. i work on a medical/pediatric floor, when the peds census in down, i work the medical side and have all adults. both have pros and cons, some cons of the peds patients are parents!!! it can be very difficult to work with the parents, also the children are very frigtened to be in the hospital and any treatment that you need to perform can become a nightmare for everyone involved...you feel like you are torturing the poor child. for example, starting IV's on the patients, holding the patient in proper position for a lumbar puncture, etc. even giving their daily PO medication can become challenging- haha. but it is rewarding as well, most kids get better and go home, rarely do i run into peds patients dying, but it depends on the hospital that you work at and how sick the patients are that you deal with. at my hopsital we do not have a pediatric ICU, we have ICU's but they are for adults, occasionally we send older children there- but all babies that are going bad are flown out ASAP. I kinda like it that way, because i don't want to see any babies/children dying. i would assume that if you worked at a hopsital that was an all children's hospital you would care for chronically ill children, cancer patients, etc. and dying would be more common. i have dealt with really sick babies, but we get them transferred in a very short amount of time. mainly we deal with RSV and rotavirus and appendicitis, resp. problems, asthma exacerbations, stomach issues, dehydration, broken extremities, etc. it is great experience, yet i must say since i had my daughter in march of '05 it has changed being a pediatric nurse...i guess it affects me more- i hate having to hold the patients down for IV sticks and such...but it is helpful just to remember that it is important for this child to have antibiotic therapy, etc etc. ok well i hope this was helpful!