Curious...any of you guys considering Peds/PICU/NICU?

I would actually love to work in Peds, but honestly the thought of losing a kid would destroy me. Even though I want to work in the ER and know that I will be more likely to lose one there, for me I see the ER as a more proactive life-or-death thing, ergo, more acceptable to me. Never said I was sane or made sense

My wife is a NICU RN and I have got to experience that already. It is very intersting and something I have thought about. I am very interested in becoming a neonatal NP.

I'm not going into PEDS/NICU/PICU, but I am however going to L&D, which is a very uncommon place to see men!
I'm psyched about it~
We need to attract some men to this specialty!

In all my six years as a Registered Nurse, I have never really worked in Pediatrics other than occasional floating. Of the times i have been to Pediatrics, it has been to do 1-1 suicide watches for the young kids and teens, but other than that I have not really worked in PEDS. I have been considering NICU/PICU nursing lately, but I have not been totally convinced of a Male Nurse in that type of setting. Often times, Men in nursing are usually found in Surgery, Emergency Department, or Intensive Care.

It can be done - trust us! Our feelings won't be hurt if you pick another specialty though. As Steve alluded to, our small numbers on these units give us a certain "celebrity status" that is kind of fun.

I've been seriously considering pediatrics as the place I want to end up eventually. Right now I'm precepting in neurology and I don't really care for it. I thought peds was a blast though (especially in comparison to other units). I haven't seen any openings in the listings at any local hospitals for peds; but I graduate in April and I'm thinking about dropping my resume off anyways.

The NICU/PICU is too enclosed for me (at least in the units at the local hospitals around here)- I did some classes there and I did not like being holed up in those small(er) spaces all day tweaking knobs. I'd rather at least have a hallway I can walk up and down between rooms. I'm not claustrophobic, but I can't imagine spending an entire day in one room. Although the kids in the NICU were really cool...I thought it was amazing how tiny they were.

As far as losing patients in Peds, it would be terrible, but it seems like the vast majority are very resilient and bounce back even moreso than the adult population in a cardiac/neuro/etc unit.

everyone always says, "peds would be so hard, seeing all those little guys sick." yes it's sad, but i found it to be sad when i saw older people that were my parents or my grandparents' ages. treating peds and doing your best to keep the child and their family as comfortable and happy as possible is a real blessing. knowing that a lot of kids (even in nicu/picu) rebound and live full lives is very rewarding. i would not want to work with any other patient population.

the picu stole my heart.

p.s.--there are quite a few men in the picu/nicu peds ed at my hospital. i would love to have more of you guys. there's a lot of respect in the peds icus for men.

wow stephen, you sold me! YEA NICU!