Re: Changing from adult to ped nursing?? Originally Posted by ACRN06 
Hello all you pediatric pro's!
I beg of you your advice!
I'm a nurse of 3 years... 2 in adult Tele, 1 in adult ER...
Back in the day I went into nursing thinking I was gonna be a peds nurse. Thats actually WHY I chose nursing to begin with.
When it came time to graduate and apply for jobs, we had been taught so much more about adults in nursing school that ped nursing kinda scared me but I still put in an application to a Childrens Hospital along with a couple adult ones... the childrens one never called, I got an immediate call from the adult hospital and thus I started my adult nursing career.
I ended up really liking adult nursing, loving it really! I don't regret going into it one bit! I've grown so much as a person and learned so much from it. Its something I could be happy doing for the rest of my career... but then...
I read an article written by a peds nurse today and my heart just went back to that old longing of wanting to help these beautiful precious children! I grew up with 8 siblings (yup! count em! 8!) So dealing with kids comes so naturally to me...and my heart goes out to them so much! I'd love nothing more than to be able to help them during a trying time. Family too, educating parents on how to take care of these little ones and helping them through the process as well.
I'm so torn!
My question is...
Do you think I should give pediatrics a go?
My biggest fears are:
1. Starting at the bottom of the totem pole all over again. Not knowing jack! Well... I'll know a bit, but pediatrics is a whole other ball game from adults! I'd have soooooooo much to learn! Its always hard leaving a comfort zone.
2. That perhaps I love kids TOO much to be able to handle seeing them go through sometimes devastating times. Is that possible? Hm... I dunno.. I think I could handle it, its not that I DON'T care about adults, but its just not quite as hard to deal with as opposed to a child's life being ended/changed so early.
Ugh.. I don't know... thats why I ask you all!
Thanks for any input you can give!
AC
You work in ER at the moment? We get alot of kids in our ER, do you see much of them there? If you really are thinking of changing jobs, have you thought about joining a Children's Hospital PRN that way you could stay at your current job and also find out if going there full time is what you really want to do. Or even call your Children's Hospital and see if it is possible to just come and job shadow a fellow nurse on the floor of choice. Good luck!
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