how to make the most of my peds clinical rotation?

[ashleyisawesome]

i just started my peds clinicals, and i was really excited. i imagined it being fun and that i would learn a lot. however, yesterday was my first day on the floor and to my dismay i was bored out of my mind! the census was very low (i think there were only 6 patients on the whole floor), and since it was our first day we each only got one patient. my patient was a 6 week old baby, so i was kind of excited. i was thinking "babies are fun. ill be able to bathe, change some diapers, maybe feed, learn about assessing infants, giving them meds etc.." it didnt dawn on me that when babies are in the hospital, their mother is usually there 24/7 and does everything for them. he has no meds to be given except a prn tylenol for fever, which he didnt need because he was pretty much better. so all i did was his morning and noon vitals and an assessment. i would pop in periodically and ask the mom if she needed anything but she pretty much had it all under control. so i asked my classmates if they needed help and they all had nothing to do as well! i also asked my nurse if there was anything i could do and she said not really, everyone was fine and if something came up shed let me know...

so is a peds floor always like this? i feel weird not having anything to do. maybe it was just a slow day or something and things will get busier later. we do some other experiences in peds LTC, rehab, school nursing, so its split up nicely, but i just want to get as much of an experience as i can while im on the floor.

any tips on things i could be doing to make the day go faster? im so used to a busy med surg floor where most of the pts are 55+ and have at least 10-20 meds. Peds is so different! im just looking for some advice on how to adjust.

thanks :)

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

It varies. Summertime our census is pretty slow and sometimes we will take low acuity adults. Like Gyn surgeries, Lap Appy's, or observational type adults. But in the winter we will be full of sick kiddos requiring a lot of care and RT treatments Q1hr. We get a lot of burn kiddos too. So some shifts I won't have much to do and other shifts I won't have much time to do anything else. My unit we can also work as a step up unit and can take some pretty sick kiddos with a 2:1 or 1:1 ratio. We just don't do cardiac stuff of vented kids. We airlift them to Denver.

So it really can vary. 2 weeks ago I had to put an IV in the foot of a 2 year old. Sometimes the parents are very involved and sometimes they could seem to care less. I work nights so a lot of my kiddos will go to sleep but like I had a 4 weeker a couple weeks ago and I went to do her vitals and she was looking wide awake. Mom and Dad were sleeping and I knew they were exhausted. They were very active in her care, anyway, they started to wake up and I told them to go back to sleep and I took her out to the nurses station and cuddled with her for 2 hrs. She was my only patient.

You just really never know what you are going to get because it's like a mini med/surg so you can get such a huge variety of patients.