[nomoreblues]

Hello I'm just new in this community. I need some help for a school project. What can you say about the competency in pediatric nursing skills of nursing students and faculty instructors? please do reply. thank you.

[nanay]

Hi NoMoreBlues

Im interested to know also how the nurses evaluate our competency during our clinical rotation.

After youre done with your project, I would appreciate if you can post a summary (just a short one) on how we are doing.

Good Day!

[nomoreblues]

im a 3rd year student too... what school are you from?

[janfrn]

In my experience, nursing students don't get enough exposure to clinical practice with kids to really "get" peds. Kids are not little adults and everything we do with and for them has to be tailored to their development, anatomy and physiology. There are as many "norms" in peds as there are stars in the sky it seems, and the amount of preparation nursing students get isn't enough to give them more than an overview. Time and experience are the only sure-fire methods of knowing that a heart rate of 150 in an infant is probably nothing to worry about, particularly if they're febrile. Or that falling BP in a child is a VERY ominous sign of impending collapse, because kids compensate for shock states by increasing their heart rates and maintain a "normal" BP until their compensation mechanisms are exhausted. It does help if the student has kids... they can bring their experience with parenting to nursing and know what little tricks might work to gain cooperation, for example. It's not enough to read about peds in a book, one actually has to observe it clinically. Think about the amount of time in a nursing program devoted to peds... it's about what - <20 % of the time devoted to learning about caring for adults. Maybe schools should have one course on well children as a prereq for caring for sick children.

You know how I see it... how do you?

[nomoreblues]

thanks a bunch! it did help me a lot... have a nice day!

[Pedi-ER-RN]

My Peds clinical faculty was very competent. Did I get enough experience to think I wanted to be a Peds nurse at that time, NO. I didn't even get to attempt an IV or blood draw on a kiddo (truth be known, I was probably too scared to do anything but give meds and do assessments, dsgs, etc..). I am now confident in my skills after 3 yrs peds er experience (I do still doubt myself sometimes though).

[PedsER-RN]

Originally Posted by nomoreblues

Hello I'm just new in this community. I need some help for a school project. What can you say about the competency in pediatric nursing skills of nursing students and faculty instructors? please do reply. thank you.

From the schools that are around here (including the one I graduated from), the level of competency (of the students) is pretty low. Then again, it's not really the students' fault, b/c (at least at my school), most students aren't allowed to do procedures on kids. Our instructors allowed us to start IV's *if* and ONLY if the pt was an adolescent with decent looking veins. We had lots of skills labs on dummies and such, but other than that, not a whole lot. I got most of my experience pre-graduation by working as a tech in the Pedi ER where I still work nearly 3 years later. We got a lot of book knowledge but like some of the others have said, there's such a wide range of norms for peds, even the book knowledge can only go so far.

[SarasotaRN2b]

Unfortunately, most schools will only spend a semester, if that on peds. I'm looking at a Children's Hospital when I am finished that offers a 22-week residency program that will hopefully provide a more indepth clinical experience.

[vonxojn]

When I was in school, we had very little contact with kids. We didn't do much with clinicals on the Pediatric floors. That's made me very reluntant to care for kids. It's different caring for your own verses someone elses.

[marilynmom]

Good question.

I know when I had my 8 weeks of ped clinicals (at a teaching hospital no less) the RN's wouldn't let student do much with the kids except the basics (VS, diaper changes, I&O's, etc). I think the RN's were just overly protective and basically wouldn't let us be involved in patient care like we are with adult clinicals. My ped instructor was horrible because she only worked in the NICU and knew nothing of children not PICU age and didn't consider herself a pedi nurse.

Most of the focus in nursing school is adult.

I work as a tech in the PICU and I love it and plan to stay there after I graduate in May. But I've had to do a lot of OTJ learning because I certainly didn't get it in school. I know I'm not alone in that because I haven't met a nursing student or RN yet that had a good ped foundation out of nursing school.

So to answer your questions, I think for the most part, most nursing students are pretty incompetent when it comes to peds...but I don't think it's the students fault. Schools just focus on adult care far more than ped care.